pertaineth to manie yea to the vvhole bodie of the people And admit that this reason vvas effectual yet the glose vpon the place saith very notably That the princes pleasure may be held for a law so far forth as that which pleaseth him be iust and honest giuing vs to know thus much therby that euerie vvill and pleasure of a Prince may not indifferentlie be allowed for a law if it be in an vniust and dishonest action contrarie to the rule of good maners Moreouer it appeareth by the customes of many ancient people and realmes that Princes had neuer this license giuen them to doe vvhat they listed for let them be neuer so mightie yea as mighty as Darius vnder vvhose raign the Persian monarchie was abolished yet he must bee content according to the law of the Medes and Persians not to bee able to infringe that law vvhich vvas by the aduise of his Peeres and priuie counsell enacted and by his owne consent and authoritie established no though for Daniels deliuerance sake vvhom he loued Dan. 6.8 he greatly desired and tooke paines either to disannull or at least to giue a fauourable interpretation of it Such in old time was the custome of the Kings of Aegypt not to follow their owne affections in any actions they vvent about Diod. lib. 2. cap. 2. but to be directed by the aduise of their laws for they had not so much authoritie as to iudge betwixt man and man or to leuie subsidies and such like by their owne powers neither to punish any man through choler or any ouerweening conceit but were alwaies tied to obserue iustice and equitie in all causes neither did it grieue them so to doe being persuaded that whilest they obeied their lawes nothing could better betide them but good Thucyd. lib 1. The Lacedemonian Kings were in such bondage to the lawes of their countrie that the Ephori which were set vp to none other end but to be a bridle to hold them backe from doing vvhat they listed had absolure authority to correct them vvhen they had committed any fault which subiection nothing displeased king Theopompus as it is apparent by the answere he made his wife that reproued him once in anger saying by his cowardlinesse he would leaue a lesse kingdome to his children then he had receiued of his ancestors nay saith he a greater for so much as more durable and parmanent Plutarch praising the vprightnesse of King Alcamenes who for feare to breake the law refused diuerse presents that were sent him bursteth into this speech O heart worthie of a King that hath preferred the authoritie of the law before his owne profite Where are those fellowes now that crie Kings pleasures ought to be obserued for lawes and that a Prince may make a law but is not subiect to it himselfe and this is that which Plutarch saith as concerning that matter who liued vnder Traian the Emperour Cornelius Tacitus discouering the beginning and originall of the Romane ciuill law Lib. 3. Annal. saith that Seruius the third King of Rome after Romulus and Numa was the only man that most established those lawes wherevnto kings themselues ought to yeeld and be obedient And admit that the Emperors swaied with great power and authoritie almost all the world yet for all their fiercenesse and haughtinesse of mind Pliny durst tell Traian verie roundlie In Paneger that an Emperour ought to vse to carrie himselfe with such good gouernment in his Empire as if he were sure to giue vp an account of all his actions thou must not saith he desire more libertie to follow thine owne lust then any one of vs doe a Prince is not set ouer the law but the law placed in authority aboue the Prince this was the admonition of that Heathen man Likewise Antonius and Seuerus two mighty Emperours although by reason of an opinion of their owne greatnesse and haultinesse wherwith they flattered themselues bragged that they were not subiect to anie law yet they added this clause withall That notwithstanding they would liue according to the direction of the law Lib. 4. tit 17. This saith Theodosius and Valentinian two no lesse mighty Emperours is a voice becomming the roial Maiestie and greatnesse of a king To confesse himselfe to liue vnder a law and in truth it is a thing of greater importance then the imperiall dignity it selfe Lib. 1 â—od to put soueraignty vnder the authority of law Amongst many other good lessons and exhortations which Lewis that good King gaue vnto his son on his death bed Nicol. Gil vol. 1. Chronicl franc this was one worthy the remembring how he commanded him to loue and feare God with all his strength and to take heed of doing any thing that should be contrarie to his law whatsoeuer should befall him and to prouide that the good lawes and statutes of his kingdome might bee obserued and the priuiledges of his subiects maintained to forbid iudges to fauour him more then others when any cause of his owne came in triall Thereby giuing vs thus much to vnderstand that euery good King ought to submit himselfe in obedience vnder the hand of God and vnder the rule of iustice and equitie Wherefore there is neither king nor Keisar that can or ought to exempt himselfe from the obseruance of sacred and vpright lawes which if they resist or disanull doubtlesse they are culpable of a most hainous crime and especially of rebellion against the king of kings CHAP. VII Of the punishment that seased vpon Pharoa king of Aegypt for resisting God and transgressing the sixt commandement of the law WE haue sufficiently declared in the premisses that the mightiest potentates of this world are bound to range themselues vnder the obedience of Gods law it remaineth now that wee produce examples of those punishments that haue fallen vpon the heads of the transgressors of the same according to the manner of their transgression of what sort soeuer which that wee may the better describe it behoueth vs to follow the order of the Commandements as the examples we bring may be fitly referred to any of them And first we are to vnderstand that when God said Thou shalt haue none other Gods before me he condemneth vnder these words the vanitie of men that haue forged to themselues a multitude of gods he forbiddeth all false religioÌ„ declareth that he wold be acknowledged to be the sole true God that we shold serue worship loue fear obey him in and aboue al things And whoseuer it bee that doth otherwise either by hindering his worship or afflicting those that worship him the same man prouoketh his heauie wrath to be throwne vpon him to his vtter ruine and destruction This is the indignation that lighted vpon Pharoa king of Aegypt as we read in the booke of God Exod. 3. who being one of the most puissant Kings of the earth in his age God chose him for an
the Emperor Sigismond had in all his affaires after the violation of his faith giuen to Iohn Hus Theatr. histor and Ierome of Prage at the councill of Constance whome though with direct protestations and othes he promised safe conduct returne yet he adiudged to be burned doth testifie the odiousnesse of his sinne in the sight of God But aboue all this one example is most worthy the marking of a fellow that hearing periurie condemned in a pulpit by a learned preacher and how it neuer escaped vnpunished said in a brauery I haue oft forsworne my selfe and yet my right hand is not a whit shorter then my left which words hee had scarse vttered when such an inflammation arose in that hand that he was constrained to go to the surgeon and cut it off least it should infect his whole body and so his right hand became shorter then his left in recompence of his periury which hee lightly esteemed of In the yeere of our Lord 1055 Goodwine Earle of Kent sitting at the table with king Edward of England Stow Chron. it happened that one of the cupbearers stumbled and yet fell not whereat Goodwine laughing said That if one brother had not holpen another meaning his legges all the wine had beene spilt with which words the king calling to mind his brothers death which was slaine by Goodwine answered So should my brother Alphred haue holpen me had not Goodwine beene then Goodwine fearing the kings new kindled displeasure excused himselfe with many words at last eating a morsell of bread wished it might choke him if he were not guiltlesse of Alphreds blood but he swore falsly as the iudgement of God declared for he was forthwith choaked in the presence of the king ere hee remooued one foote from that place though there be some say he recouered life againe Stow Chron Long time after this in the reigne of Queene Elizabeth there was in the city of London one Anne Aueriâ—â— widdow who forswore her selfe for a little mony that she should haue paid for six pound of tow at a shop in Woodstreet for which cause being suddenly surprized with the iustice of God shee fell downe speechlesse forthwith and cast vp at her mouth in great aboundance with horrible stinke that matter which by natures course should haue bene voided downwards and so died to the terrour of all periured and forsworne wretches There are in Histories many more examples to be found of this hurtfull and pernicious sinne exercised by one nation towards another and one man towards another in most profane and villanous sort neither shaming to be accounted forsworne nor consequently fearing to displease God and his maiestie But forasmuch as when we come to speake of murderers in the next booke we shall haue occasion to speake of them more or of such like I will referre the handling thereof vnto that place only this let euery man learne by that which hath bene spoken to be sound and fraudlesse and to keepe his faith and promise towards all men if for no other cause yet for feare of God who leaueth not this sinne vnpunished nor holdeth them guiltlesse that thus take his name in vaine CHAP. XXXI Of Blasphemers AS touching Blasphemie it is a most grieuous and enormous sinne and contrary to this third commandement when a man is so wretched and miserable as to pronounce presumptuous speeches against God whereby his name is slandered and euill spoken of which sinne can not choose but be sharpely and seuerely punished for if so be that God holdeth not him guiltlesse that doth but take his name in vaine must hee not needs abhorre him that blasphemeth his name See how meritoriously that wicked and peruerse wretch that blasphemed and murdered as it were the name of God among the people of Israel in the desert was punished hee was taken Leuit. 24. put in prison and condemned and speedily stoned to death by the whole multitude and vpon that occasion as euil manners begat euermore good lawes the Lord instituted a perpetual law and decree that euery one that should blaspheme and curse God of what estate or degree soeuer should be stoned to death in token of detestation which sentence if it might now a daies stand in force there would not raigne so many miserable blasphemers deniers of God as the world is now filled and infected with It was also ordained by a new law of Iustinian Cod. lib. 3. tit 43. that blasphemies should be seuerely punished by the Iudges magistrates of commonweales but such is the corruption and misery of this age that those men that ought to correct others for such speeches are oftentimes worst themselues there are that thinke that they can not be sufficiently feared and awed of men except by horrible bannings swearings they despite maugre God nay it is further come to that passe that in some places to sweare and ban be the marks ensignes of a Catholike they are best welcome that can blaspheme most How much then is that good king S. Lewes of France to be commended Nichol. Gil. vol. 1. Of French Chronicles who especially discharged all his subiects from swearing blaspheming within his realme insomuch that when he heating a a Lord of Ienville noble man blaspheme God most cruelly he caused him to be laid hold on his lips to be slit with an hor iron saying he must be content to endure that punishment seeing he purposed to banish othes out of his kingdome Now we call blasphemie according to the scripture phrase euery word that derogateth either from the bountie mercy iustice eternity soueraigne power of God of this sort was that blasphemous speech of one of king Iorams princes who at the time of the great famine in Samaria when it was besieged by the Sirians hearing Elizaeus the Prophet say that the next morow there should be plenty of victuals and good cheape reiected this promise of God made by his Prophet 2. King 7. saying that it was impossible as if God were either a lyar or not able to performe what he would for this cause this vnbeleeuing blasphemer receiued the same day a deserued punishment for his blasphemie for hee was troden to death in the gate of the citie vnder the feet of the multitude that went out into the Sirians camp forsaken and left desolate by them through a feare which the Lord sent among them 2. King 19. Sennacherib king of Assyria after he had obtained many victories subdued much people vnder him also laid siege to Ierusalem became so proud arrogant as by his seruants mouthes to reuile and blaspheme the liuing God speaking no otherwise of him then of some strange idoll and one that had no power to helpe and deliuer those that trusted in him for which blasphemies he soone after felt a iust vengeaÌ„ce of God vpon himselfe his people for although in mans eies he seemed
with his sonne but also quite extinguished the Gothicke kingdome in Spaine in this warre and vpon this occasion seuen hundred thousand men perished as hystories record and so a kingdome came to ruine by the peruerse lust of one lecher Anno 714. At the sacking and destruction of Thebes by king Alexander a Thracian captaine which was in the Macedonian army tooke a noble Matron prisoner called Tymoclea whome when by no persuasion of promises he could entise to his lust he constrained by force to yeeld vnto it Plut. in vita Alexand. Sabel lib. 5. c. 6. but this noble minded woman inuented a most witty subtile shift both to rid her selfe out of his hands and to reuenge his iniurie she told him that she knew where a rich treasure lay hid in a deepe pit whether when with greedinesse of the gold he hastened standing vpon the brinke pried and peared into the bottome of it she thrust him with both her hands into the hole and tumbled stones after him that he might neuer find meanes to come forth for which fact she was brought before Alexander to haue iustice who demanding her what she was she answered that Theagenes who led the Thebane army against the Macedonians was her brother Alexander perceiuing the maruellous constancie of the woman and knowing the cause of her accusation to bee vniust manumitted and set her free with her whole family When Cn. Manlius hauing conquered the Gallo-Grecians pitched his army against the Tectosages people of Narbonia towards the Piren mountains amongst other prisoners a very fair womā wife to Orgiagous Regulus was in the custodie of a Centurion that was both lustfull and couetous Liuiu◠lib. 38. This lecher tempted her first with faire persuasions and seeing her vnwilling compelled her with violence to yeeld her body as a slaue to fortune so to infamy and dishonor after which act somewhat to mitigate the wrong he gaue her promise of release and freedome vpon condition of a certaine summe of money and to that purpose sent her seruant that was captiue with her to her friends to puruey the same which hee bringing the Centurion alone with the wronged lady met him at a place appointed and whilest hee weighed the money by her counsaile was murdered of her seruants so she escaping caried to her husband both his money and threw at his feet the villaines head that had spoiled her of her chastitie Andreas king of Hungary hauing vndertaken the voiage into Siria for the recouety of the holy land together with many other kings and Princes committed the charge of his kingdome and family to one Bannebanius Chronica Hungariae a wise and faithfull man who discharged his office as faithfully as hee tooke it willingly vpon him now the Queene had a brother called Gertrude that came to visite and comfort his sister in her husbands absence and by that meanes soiourned with her a long time euen so long till hee fell deadly in loue with Bannebanus lady a faire vertuous woman one that was thought worthie to keepe company with the Queene continually to whome when hee had vnfolded his suit and receiued such stedfast repulse that hee was without all hope of obtaining his desire he began to droupe and pine vntill the Queene his sister perceiuing his disease found this peruerse remedie for the cure thereof shee would often giue him oportunitie of discourse by withdrawing her selfe from them being alone and many times leaue them in secret and dangerous places of purpose that he might haue his will of her but she would neuer consent vnto his lust and therefore at last when hee saw no remedie hee constrained her by force and made her subiect to his will against her will which vile disgracefull indignitie when shee had suffered shee returned home sad and melancholy and when her husband would haue embraced her she fled from him asking him if he would embrace a whore and related vnto him her whole abuse desiring him either to rid her from shame by death or to reuenge her wrong make knowne vnto the world the iniury done vnto her There needed no more spurs to pricke him forward for reuenge he posteth to the court and vpbraiding the Queene with her vngratefull and abhominable trecherie runneth her through with his sword and taking her heart in his hand proclaimeth openly that it was not a deed of inconsideration but of iudgement in recompence of the losse of his wiues chastitie foorthwith hee flieth towards the King his Lord that now was at Constantinople and declaring to him his fact and shewing to him his sword besmeared with his wiues blood submitteth himselfe to his sentence either of death in rigour or pardon in compassion but the good King enquiring the truth of the cause though greeued with the death of his wife yet acquite him of the crime and held him in as much honour and esteeme as euer hee did condemning also his wife as worthy of that which shee had endured for her vnwomanlike and traiterous part A notable example of iustice in him and of punishment in her that forgetting the law of womanhood and modestie made her selfe a baud vnto her brothers lust whose memory as it shall be odious and execrable so his iustice deserueth to be engrauen in marble with caracters of gold Equall to this king in punishing a Rape was Otho the first Albert. Krant lib. 3. for as he passed through Italy with an armie a certaine woman cast her selfe downe at his feet for iustice against a villaine that had spoiled her of her chastitie who deferring the execution of the law till his returne because his hast was great the woman asked who should then put him in mind thereof hee answered This church which thou seest shall be a witnesse betwixt mee and thee that I will then reuenge thy wrong Now when hee had made an end of his warfare in his returne as hee beheld the church hee called to mind the woman and caused her to be fetcht who falling down before him desired now pardon for him whom before she had accused seeing he had now taken her to wife redeemed his iniury with sufficient satisfaction Not so I sweare quoth Otho your compacting shall not infringe or collude the sacred ◠but hee shall die for his former fault and so he caused hi◠be put to death A notable example for them that after they haue committed filthinesse with a maid thinke it no sin but competent amends if they take her in marriage whom they abused before in fornication Nothing inferiour to these in punishing this sin was Gonzaga duke of Ferrara as by this historie following may appear in the yeare 1547 a citizen of Comun Theat histor was cast into prison vpon an accusation of murder whome to deliuer frō the iudgement of death his wife wrought all means possible therefore comming to the captaine that held him prisoner she sued to him for her husbands life
mightily the hand of God was stretched foorth to the reuenge of those wicked deedes and villanies which were committed by the Spaniards in those quarters Peter Loys bastard son to Pope Paule the third Sleidan lib. 19. Bal. was one that practised many horrible villanies robberies murders adulteries incest and Sodomitries thinking that because his father was Pope therefore no wickednesse was vnlawfull for him to commit He was by the report of all men one of the most notorious vildest and filthiest villaines that euer the world saw he forced the Bishop of Faence to his vnnaturall lust so that the poore Bishop with meere anger and griefe that hee should be so abused died immediately being made Duke of Plaisence and Parme hee exercised most cruell tyrany towards many of his subiects insomuch that diuerse gentlemen that could not brooke nor endure his iniuries conceiued an inward hate against him and conspired his death and for to put in practise the same they hired certaine ruffians and roisters to watch the oportunitie of slaying him yea and they themselues oftentimes went apart with these roisters keeping themselues vpon their guards as if some priuate and particular quarrels had beene in hand one day as the Duke went in his horselitter out of his castell with a great retinue to see certaine fortifications which he had prepared being aduertised by his father the Pope by the helpe of Magicke which he practised to looke diligently to himselfe the tenth day of September in which notwithstanding he was slaine for as he returned into his castell the conspirators to the number of sixe and thirtie marched before him as it were to do him honor but indeed to doe him villany for assoone as he was entred the castell they drew vp the drawbridge for feare of his retinue that were without and comming to him with their naked swords cast in his teeth his tyrannie and so slew him in his litter togither with a Priest the maister of his horse and fiue Almaignes that were of his guard his dead body they hung by a chaine ouer the wals and shaking it to and fro to the view of the people threw it downe headlong at last into the ditch where the multitude to shew their hates wounded it with daggers and trampled it vnder their feet and so whome they durst not touch in his life him being dead they thus abused and this befell vpon the tenth day of September in the yeere of our Lord 1547. Some of the Bishops of Rome for their rare and notable vertues and the glory of their braue deeds may be honoured with this dignity to be placed in this worthy ranke for their good conditions and behauiours were such that no tyrant butcher theefe robber ruffian nor any other euer excelled them in crueltie robbery adulterie and such like wickednesse or deserued more the credit and reputation of his place than they And hereof we haue a manifest example in Iohn the thirteenth who pulling out the eies of some of his Cardinals cutting out the tongues of others hewing off the hands noses and priuy members of others shewed himselfe a patterne of such crueltie as the world neuer saw the like Hee was accused before the Emperour Otho in a synode first of incest with two of his owne sisters secondly for calling the deuill to helpe him at dice thirdly for promoting young infants to bishoprickes bribed thereto by the gift of certaine peeces of gold fourthly for rauishing maides and wiues and lying with his fathers concubine yea and lastly for lying with his owne mother and many other such monstrous villanies for which cause hee was deposed from the papacie though reinstalled againe by the sute and cunning practise of his whores by whome as hee recouered his triple crowne so he lost shortly after his vicious life by the meanes of a married whore that betraied him Benno Bal. Pope Hildebrand sirnamed Gregory the seuenth was adorned with all these good qualities namely to be bloody minded a poisoner a murderer a coniurer also a consulter with spirits and in a word nothing but a lumpe and masse of wickednesse hee was the stirrer vp of many battels against the Emperor Henry the fourth and a prouoker of his own son to depose and poyson his father as hee did but this wicked I would say holy Pope was at last banished his Cathedrall citie to Salernum where he ended his daies in miserie Pope Clement the sixt of name contrary to his nature for his inclemencie crueltie pride towards the Emperor Lewis of Bauarie was intollerable he procured many horrible wars against the Empire and caused the destruction of twenty thousand Frenchmen by the king of England yea and poysoned the good Emperour also so well he wished to him Howbeit ere long himselfe was stifled to death and that sodainly not by any practise of man as it was thought but by the speciall hand of God in recompence of all his notable acts Iohn the foure and twentith was deposed by the councell of Constance for these crimes following heresie Simonie Benno Bal. manslaughter poysonings cousenings adultry Sodomitry and was cast into prison where remaining three years he falsly made shew of amendment of his wicked life therefore was graced with a Cardinals hat but it was not that which he expected for which cause with despight griefe he died It would bee too long to run ouer the discourse of euery particular Pope of like conditions and therefore wee will conteÌ„t our selues in briefe with the legend of Pope Alexander the sixt reported by two authors of credite and renowne vnsuspected to wit Guicciardine a Florentine gentlemaÌ„ Guicciardine lib. 2. Bembus Bembus a Venetian cardinall this man saith Guicciardine attained to the Papacy not by worthinesse of vertues but by heauinesse of bribes and multitude of faire promises made to the cardinals for his election promising large recompence to them that stood on his side whereupon many that knew his course of life were filled with astonishment amongst whome was the king of Naples who hearing of this election coÌ„plained to his queene with tears that there was such a pope created that wold be a plague to Italy al ChristeÌ„dome beside the great vices which swaied in him of which the same author speaking maketh this catalogue and pettigree in his own language which followeth Guiâ—â—tardine lib. 2. Costum d it il oscensimi non sincerita non verita non fede non religione auaritia insatiabile ambitione immoderata crudelta pinque barbara eo ardentissima cupidita di escaltare in qualunque modo i figli voli i quali erano molti that is to say He was endued with most filthie conditions and that neither sincerity truth faith nor religion was in him but in steed of them couetousnesse vnquenchable ambition vnmeasurable more then barbarous crueltie and a burning desire of promoting his owne children for he had many by what meanes soeuer He
them selues aloofe from him and are so farre from being bettered thereby that they shew themselues a great deale more malitious and obstinate then euer they did before not vnlike to those who by nature being bleare eied tender sighted are rather dazeled and dimmed by the sunne beames then any waies enlightned so men in stead of growing better grow worse and euery day ad some increase to their wickednesse to whome also many great men giue elbow-roome and permission to sinne whilst iustice slumbereth and the not punishing of misdeedes giueth them libertie and boldnesse to commit their wickednesse so that some of these mightie ones shew themselues but little better then the other A mischiefe to be lamented aboue the rest drawing after it an horrible ouerflow of all euils and like a violent streame spoiling euery where as it goeth when as they that ought to gouerne the sterne of the Commonwealth let all goe at randome suffering themselues to bee rocked a sleepe with the false and deceitfull lullabie of effeminate pleasures and delights of the flesh or at least letting themselues be carried headlong by the tempest of their owne strong and furious passions into emminent danger of shipwrackes when as their carefull watchfulnesse and modestie accompanied with the traine of other good and commendable vertues ought to serue them for fails cables ankers masts and skutles whereby to gouerne and direct the vessel vvhose stearsmen they are appointed and those that are their charge to whom they ought to giue a good example of life and be vnto them as it vvere a glasse of vertue for they are set aloft as it vvere vpon a stage to be gazed at of euerie commer Their faults and vices are like foule spots and scarres in the face which cannot by anie meanes be hid And therefore they ought to be carefull to lead an honest and vertuous life that thereby they might persuade and moue the meaner sort of people to doe the like for it is a true saying of the Philosopher Like Prince like people in so much that euerie one desireth to frame himselfe according to the humour of his superiour whose will and manners serue simplie for a law to doe euill to the which men vse by taking any occasion too hastelie to giue themselues ouer with too much libertie whervpon followeth an vnrecouerable ruin no lesse then the fall of a great house which for want of pillers and supporters that should vphold it suddenly falleth to the ground so this ship being depriued of her gouernour is set loose and laid open to the mercie of the waues violence of winds and rage of tempests without anie direction or gouernment and so the bodie of man not hauing anie more the light of his own eies abideth in darknesse all blinded not able to doe any thing that is right and good but ready euery minute to fall into some pit And this is the peruersitie and corruption of this world CHAP. III. That great men which will not abide to bee admonished of their faults cannot escape punishment by the hand of God IN this poore and miserable estate euery man rocketh himselfe asleepe and flattereth his owne humour euerie man pursueth his accustomed course of life with an obstinat mind to do euill yea many of those that haue power authoritie ouer others according as they are endued and persuaded with a foolish conceit of themselues make themselues beleeue that for them euerie thing is lawfull and that they may do whatsoeuer they please neuer imagining that they shall giue vp an account of their actions to receiue anie chastisement or correction for them euen as though there were no God at al that did behold them being thus abused by this vaine and fickle securitie they swimme in their sinnes and plunge themselues ouer head and eares in all kind of sensualitie giuing heartie welcome and entertainment to all that approoue and applaud their manners and that studie to feed and please their humour As contrariwise none lesse welcome vnto them then they that tell them of their faults and contradict them neuer so little for they cannot abide in anie case to be reprooued whatsoeuer they doe And now a daies euerie base companion will forsooth storme and fume as soon if he be reproued of a fault as if he had receiued the greatest wrong in the world so much is euerie man pleased with himselfe and puffed vp with his owne vices and foolish vanities And what should a man doe in this case It is as hard to redresse these great mischiefs as if we should goe about to stop and hinder the course of a mightie streame there where the bancke or causey is broken downe if it be not by applying extreme desperate medicines as to desperate diseases which are as it were giuen ouer by the Phisition and to the which a light purgation will do no good For as for admonitions and warnings they are not a whit regarded but they that giue them are derided or laughed to scorne or reuiled for their labors What must we therefore do It is necessarie that we assay by all means to bring these men if it be possible to some modestie fear of God which if it cannot be done by willing and gentle means force and violence must be vsed to plucke them out of the fire of Gods wrath to the end they be not consumed if not all yet at least those that are not growne to that height of stubbornes and of whome therâ—â—s yet left some hope of amendment For euen as when a captaine hath not preuailed by summoning a citie to yeeld vp it selfe he by and by placeth his canon against their wals to put them in feare In like sort must wee bring foorth against the prowd and high minded men of this world an armie of Gods terrible iudgements throwne downe by his mighty and puissant hand vpon the wicked more terrible and fearefull then all the roaring canons or double canons in the world vvhereby the most prowd are destroied and consumed euen in this life all their pride and power how great soeuer it bee being not able to turne backe the vengeance of God from lighting vpon their heads to their vtter destruction and confusion As it is manifest by infinit examples Now because that the nature of men is fleshly and giuen to be touched with things that are presented before their faces or hath beene done before time it is a more forcible motiue to stirre them vp then that which as yet cannot be made manifest but is to come Therefore I purpose here to set downe the great fearfull iudgements wherewith God hath alreadie plagued manie in this world especially them of high degree whose example will serue for a glasse both for these that liue now or shall liue hereafter And to the end that the iustice of God may more clearely appear and shew it selfe in such strange euents before wee goe any further we will run ouer certaine
wanted no power and ability to punish them for he hath lightning thunder fire prepared instruments to execute his iust vengeance which no creature vnder heauen is able to auoid when by the obstinat transgression of wicked men he is prouoked to anger and indignation against them This is that holy law which hath ben set forth by the Prophets by the rule whereof all their warnings exhortings and reprouings haue ben squared to this law the onely begotten sonne of God our sauiour and redeemer Iesus Christ conformed his most holy doctrine bringing men to the true vse and obseruation thereof from which they had declined and whereof he is the end the scope and perfect accomplishment so that so far it is that a Christian man may be ignorant of it and haue it in contempt that none can be counted and reputed a true Christian if he frame not his life by the rule thereof if not fully yet at least as farforth as he is able otherwise vvhat a shame and reproch is this for men to call themselues by the name of Gods children Christians and Catholicks and yet to do euery thing clean contrarie to the will of God to make no reckoning of his law to lead a dissolute and disordered life and to bee as euill if not worse then the vilest miscreants and infidels in the world God willeth and requireth that he alone should bee worshipped and praied vnto and yet the greater part of the world are idolaters and full of superstition worship Images stickes and stones and pray to creatures instead of the creator God forbiddeth vs to sweare by his name in vaine and yet what is more rife then that so that a man can heare nothing else but othes and blasphemies Manie for the least trifle in the world stick not to sweare forsweare themselues God forbiddeth theft murther adulterie and false witnesse bearing and yet nothing so common as backbitings slanders forgeries false reports whoredomes cousenings robberies extortions and all manner of enuies and enmities God hath commanded that we loue our neighbours as our selues but we in stead of loue hate despise and seeke to procure the hurt and damage of one another not regarding anie thing but our owne peculiar profit and aduantage Is not this a manifest and profest disobedience and intollerable rebellion against our maker What child is there that is not bound to honour and reuerence his father What seruant that is not bound to obey his maister and to doe all that hee shall will him What subiect that is not tied in subiection to his Prince and Soueraigne Yet there is not one which will not confesse yea and sweare too with his mouth that God is his Lord and father Which if it bee true what is then the cause that instead of seruing and pleasing him they doe nothing else but displease and offend his Maiestie Is not this the way to prouoke his wrath and stirre vp his indignation against them Is it any maruaile if he be incensed with anger if he be armed with reuenge and send abroad his cruell scourges vpon the earth to strike and whip it with all Is it any wonder if he pile vp the wicked ones on heapes and shoot out his reuengefull arrows against them and make them drunken with their owne blood and make his sword of iustice as sharpe as a rasor Deut. 32.35 to punish those rebels that haue rebelled against him For vengeance is mine saith he and belongeth onely vnto me whosoeuer therefore he be that followeth the desires and concupiscence of his owne flesh and this wicked world shall lead a life contrarie to the instruction and ordinance of the law of God yea although he neuer heard thereof yet is he guiltie thereof worthie to be accursed for so much as his owne conscience ought to serue for a law vnto himselfe by the which hee is condemned in those euill actions which he committeth euen as Paul saith all that haue sinned without the law shall likewise perish without the law Rom. 2.12 CHAP. VI. How the greatest Monarchs in the world ought to be subiect to the law of God and consequently the lawes of man and of nature EVerie man confesseth this to be true That by how much the more benefits and dignitie hee hath receiued from another by so much is he the more bounden and beholden to him now it is so that Kings and Princes are those vpon whom God hath bestowed more plentifully his gifts and graces then vpon any other whom hee hath made as it were his Lieutenants in this world for he hath extolled and placed them aboue others and bedecked them with honour giuing them power authoritie to rule and raigne by putting people in subiection to them and therefore so much the more are they bound to reacknowledge him againe to the end to doe him all honour and homage which is required at their hands Psal 2.11 Therefore Dauid exhorteth them to serue the Lord euen with reuerence This then their high and superintendent estate is no priuiledge to exempt them from the subiection and obedience which they owe vnto God whom they ought to reuerence aboue all things Psal 29.1 Ye Princes and high Lords saith the Prophet giue you vnto the Lord eternall glorie and strength giue vnto him glorie due vnto his name and cast your selues before him to doe him reuerence If they owe so much honour vnto God as to their soueraine then surely it must follow that they ought to obey his voice and feare to offend him and so much the rather because hee is a great deale more strong and terrible then they able to cause his horrible thunderbolts to tumble vpon their heads they being not able once to withstand his puissance but constrained very often to tremble thereat In al that prescription and ordinance ordained set downe by God concerning the office of Kings Deut. 17.15 there is no mention made of any libertie that he giueth them to liue after their owne lusts and to do euery thing that seemeth good in their owne eies but he enioineth them expressely to haue alwaies with them the booke of his law delighteth to read and meditate therein and thereby to learne to feare and reuerence his name by obseruing all the precepts that are contained in that booke As for ciuill and naturall lawes in so much as they are founded vpon equitie and right for otherwise they were no lawes therein they are agreeable to and as it were dependents on the law of God as is well declared by Cicero in the first and second booke of his lawes for euen they also condemne theeues adulterers murderers parricides and such like If then princes be subiect to the law of God as I am about to shew there is no doubt but that they are likewise subiect to those ciuill lawes by reason of the equitie and iustice which therein is commended vnto vs. And if as Plato saith the lawes
with many other strange cruelties This example belongeth also in regard of cruelty to the sixt commandement Lib. 2. cap. 11.17 Booke of the Iewish antiquitie chap. 8 as by killing the ordinary iudges of the house of Dauid and his owne wife and children this caitife was tormented with sundrie intollerable griefes and at last deuoured by an horrible and most fearfull death For as Iosephus reporteth his body was boiled and his bowels gnawne in two by a soft and slow fire fretting inwardly without any outward appearance of heat besides the rauenous insatiable desire of eating which so possessed him that without chewing his meat in whole lumpes descended into his bodie deuouring it so fast as it could bee throwne into his mouth and neuer ceasing to farse his greedie throat with continual sustenance moreouer his feet were so swolne and puft vp with such a flegme that a man might see through them his priuie parts so rotten and ful of vermine and his breath so stinking that few or none durst approch neere vnto him yea his owne seruants forsooke him Now lying in this wretched plight when this wicked man saw no remedie could bee found to assuage his griefe he went about to kill himselfe and being not able to performe it he was constrained to endure all the panges of a most horrible lingring and languishing death and at last mad and miserable bestraught of sence and reason to end his daies As for Herod the Tetrarch Luke 9 7. sirnamed Antipas who to please Herodias had caused Iohn Baptist to be beheaded when he had likewise prepared snares for our Sauiours feet and being sent to him by Pilate to quit himselfe and gratifie him withall had ieasted and mocked at him his belly full This example in regard of diuorce belongeth to the seueth commandement Lib. 2. cap. 29. Ioseph of the Iewish antiquitie booke 8. chap. 9. behold his reproches and mockes was he neuer so subtile turned into his own bosome For first after that his armie had beene discomfited by the souldiors of king Aretas whose daughter in regard of Herodias his brother Philips wife he had repudiated a further shame and dishonour befell him euen to be depriued of his roiall dignitie and not only to be brought into a low and base estate but also being robbed of his goods to be banished into a far countrie there to make an end of the rest of his life As touching Pilate the gouernour of Iudea hee did so excell in wickednesse and iniustice Euseb that notwithstanding the restraint of his owne conscience the law of ciuill equity and the aduertisement of his owne wife yet hee condemned Christ Iesus the iust and innocent to the death of the crosse albeit he could not but know the power of his miracles the renowne whereof was spread into all places But ere long hauing beene constrained to erect the image of the Emperour Caligula in the Temple of Ierusalem to be worshipped hee was sent for to make personall appearance at Rome to answere to certaine accusations of crueltie which were by the Iewes obiected against him And in his iourney being afflicted in conscience Euseb Eutrop. lib. 7. with the number and weight of his misdeeds like a desperate man to preuent the punishment which he feared willingly offered violence to his owne life and killed himselfe The first Emperour that tooke in hand to persecute the Christians was Nero the tyrant picking a quarrell against them for setting the city on fire Tertul. Nicephor 8. Commandement calumniation Lib. 2. cap. 44. which being himself guiltie of he charged them withall as desirous to find out any occasion to doe them hurt wherefore vnder pretence of the same crime discharinging his own guilt vpon their backs he exposed thē to the furie of the people that tormented them very sore as if they had ben commō burners destroiers of cities the deadliest enemies of mankind Tacit. Annal. Lib. 5. Herevpon the poor innocents were apprehended some of them clad with skins of wild beasts were torne in pieces by dogs others crucified or made bonefires of on such heaps that the flame arising frō their bodies serued in stead of torches for the night To cōclude such horrible cruelty was vsed towards thē that many of their verie enemies did pitty their miseries But at last this wretch the causer of all seeing himselfe in danger to be murthered by one appointed for that purpose a iust reward for his horrible vniust dealing hastened his death by killing himselfe Suet. Refer this also to the 24 chap. of this booke Suet. Eutrop. as it shal be shewed more at large in the 2. booke The authour of the second persecution against the Christians was Domitian who was so puft vp and swolne with pride that he would needs ascribe vnto himselfe the name of God Against this man rose vp his houshold seruants who by his wiues consent slew him with daggers in his priuy chamber his body was buried without honor his memory cursed to posterity his ensignes trophees thrown down defaced Traian who albeit in al things els in the gouernmēt of the Empire also shewed himselfe a good sage Prince yet did he dash bruise himself against this stone with the rest was reckoned the third persecutor of the church of Christ for which cause he vnderwent also the cruel vengeance of God felt his heauy hand vpō him for first he fel into a palsie Dion when he had lost the vse of his sences persuading himself that he was poysoned got a dropsie also and so died in great anguish Hadrian in the 9 year of his Empire caused ten thousand Christians to be crucified in Armenia at one time after that ceased not to stir vp a very whot persecution against thē in all places Mandat 7. Liq 2. cap. 12. Spart But God persecuted him that to his destructiō first with an issue of blood wherwith he was so weakened disquieted that oftētimes he would faine haue made away himself next with the consumption of the lunges lights which he spate out of his mouth continaully and thirdly with an insatiable dropsie so that seeing himself in this horrible tormēt he desired poisō to hastē his death or a knife to make quick riddance but when all those means were kept back he was inforced to indure still at last to die in great misery Whilst Marcus Antonius surnamed Verus swaied the Empire there were exceeding cruelties set abroach against the poore Christians euery where but especially at Lions and Vienna in Daulphine as Eusebius in his Ecclesiasticall historie recordeth Euseb Spart Wherfore he wanted not his punishment for he died of an apoplexie after he had lien speechlesse three daies After that Seuerus had proclaimed himselfe a profest enemie to Gods church his affaires began to decline and he found himselfe pestered vvith diuerse extremities and set vpon with
not of God but of men and therfore must needs come to naught Act. 13. After Christ in the Apostles time there was one Elimas a sorcerer that mightily withstood the doctrine of Paul and Barnabas before Sergius Paulus the Deputy and sowed a contrarie heresie in his mind but Paul full of the holy Ghost set his eies on him and said O full of all subtiltie and mischiefe the child of the Deuill and enemie of righteousnesse wilt thou not cease to peruert the straight waies of the Lord Now therefore behold the hand of the Lord is vpon thee and thou shalt be blind for a season And immediately there fell vpon him a mist and darkenesse and he went about to seeke some to lead him by the hand And this recompense gained he for his erronious and hereticall practise Euseb lib. 4. cap. 6. Philip. M. chron A while after him vnder the Empire of Adrian arose there another called Bencochab that professed himselfe to bee the Messias and to haue descended from Heauen in the likenesse of a Starre for the safetie and redemption of the people by which fallacie hee drew after him a world of seditious Disciples but at length hee and manie of his credulous rout were slaine and was called by the Iewes Bencozba that is the sonne of a lie and this was the goodly redemption which this Heretike brought vpon his owne head and many of his fellowes It is reported of Cerinthus an Heretike that hee denying and going about to darken the doctrine of Christs euerlasting kingdome Euseb was ouerwhelmed by the sodaine fall of an whote house which fell vpon him and his associates assoone as Saint Iohn was departed from it for Ireneus saith that hee heard Polycarpus often report how Saint Iohn being about to enter into the bathes at Ephesus when hee perceiued Cerinthus alreadie within departed verie hastily saying to those that bore him companie that hee feared that the house would fall vpon their heads because of Cerinthus the Heretike that was therein at that instant Manes Euseb Socrat. of whom the Maniches tooke their name and first oririginall forged in his foolish braine a fiction of two gods and two beginners and reiecting the old Testament the true God which is reuealed in the same published a fifth Gospell of his owne forgerie yea and was so besotted with folly as Suidas testifieth of him that hee reported himselfe to be the holy Ghost when hee had thus with his deuelish heresies and blasphemies infected the world and was pursued by Gods iust iudgement at last for other wicked practises hee had his skin pulled ouer his eares aliue and so died in miserie Montanus that blasphemous caitife of whom came the Montanistes or Pepuzian heretikes of a towne in Phrigia called Pepuza denied Christ our sauiour to bee God and said he was but a man only like other men without any participation of diuine essence hee called himselfe the comforter and holy spirit which was forepromised to come into the world and his two wiues Priscilla and Maximilla hee named his prophetisses and their writings prophecies howbeit all their cunning could not foretell nor preuent a wretched and desperate end which befell him for hee hong himself after he had deluded the world a long seasō proued by his end his life to haue beene vile and damnable according to the Prouerbe Nicephor lib. 4. cap. 22. Centur. 2. cap. 8. Qualis vita finis ita A cursed life and a cursed death Of all Heretikes that euer troubled and afflicted Gods church the Arians were the chiefe the author and ringleader of which crue as by his vainglorious pride and ambition he sought to extoll himselfe aboue the clouds bosting and vaunting in his damnable error Socrat. Theod. Sozom. so by the iust vengeance of God he was abased lower then hell and put in euerlasting shame opprobrie for he had long time as it were entered the list and combated with Christ was condemned for an Heretike by the Nicene counsell and his books burned and then afterwards making shew before Constantine the Emperour with a solemne oth to recant his old errors and approue the profession of faith which the counsell of Nice had set forth concerning Christs diuinity whereunto also he subscribed his name but all that he did was in hipocrisie to the end to renue and republish the more boldly his false and pernicious doctrine But when hee thought himselfe neerest to the attainement of his purpose and braued it most with his supporters and companions euen then the Lord stroke him with a soddaine feare in the open street and with such horrible panges in his guts and vehement desire of disburdening nature that hee was faine to come vnto the publike houses appointed for that purpose taking them which were next at hand for a shift but he neuer shifted from them againe for his breath went out of his mouth and his guts ran out of his fundament and there lay hee dead vpon his owne excrements As the Emperour Gonstantius was a great fauourer and supporter of this sect and maintained it against and in despight of true Christians and by that meanes stirred vp schismes and dissentions throughout all Christendome Socrat lib. 2. cap. 47. so the Lord to requite him stirred vp one Iulian whom he himselfe had promoted to honour to rebell against him whose practises as hee went about to suppresse and was euen readie to encounter a grieuous apoplexie suddenly surcharged him so sore that he died of it before he could bring his purpose to passe The Emperour Valence was infected also with this poison R ff lib. 2. c. 13. Iornand wherewith likewise hee infected the Gothes who by his meanes were become the greater part Arrians and not Christians but neither went he vnpunished for when hee marched forth to represse the rage of the furious Gothes who were spred ouer all Thracia and had giuen them battell hee lost the day and being shamefully put to flight was pursued so fiercely that he was faine to hide himselfe in a litle house which being set on fire by the Gothes he was burnt therein As for Nestorius which would maintaine by his foolish dangerous opinions that the diuinitie of Christ was deuided from his humanity making as it were two Christs of one and two persons of one Niceph. lib. 14. cap. 36. and so turned vpside downe the whole ground worke of our saluation escaped no more the iust vengeance of God then all other heretikes did for first hee was banished into a farre countrey and there tormented with a strange disease the very wormes did gnaw in pieces his blasphemous tongue and at length the earth opened her mouth and swallowed him vp Concerning the Anabaptists which rose vp about fiue hundred yeres since it is euidently knowen how diuers waies God scourged and plagued many of them some of them were destroied by troupes and by thousands others miserably executed and
deigne to acknowledge And thus it falleth out with all wicked miserable Atheists whose hearts imagine there is no God and therfore haue so little assurance in themselues that there need no thunder and lightning to amase them for the shaking of euerie leafe is sufficient to make them tremble To conclude this Atheist void of religion and feare of God and full of all prophanesse was according to his due desert murthered by one of his owne seruants of the which will follow more at large in the next booke Domitian likewise was so blinded with pride that he would be called a god and worshipped Oros lib. 7. ca. 7. of whome also wee will speake in the second booke and 34 chapter To these we may adde them also Dionys Halie Lib. 1. antiq Roman that to the end to make themselues feared and reuerenced as gods haue counterfaited the lightnings and thunders of heauen as we read of one Alladius a Latin king that raigned before Romulus who being a most wicked tyrant a contemner of God inuented a trick whereby to represent to the eare and eie the rattling swift shine of both thunder lightning that by that meanes astonishing his subiects he might be guised of them for a god but it chanced that his house being set on fire with true lightning ouerthrown with the violent strength of tempestuous rain togither with the ouerflowing of a pond that stood nere he perished by fire water burnt drowned all at once Did not the king of Elide the like and to the same end also by the deuice of a chariot drawn about with foure horses wherein were certaine iron workes which with wrinching about gaue an horrible sound resembling thunder and torches and squibs which hee caused to be throwen about like lightnings in such sort that he oftentimes burnt the beholders Diod. lib. 4. in this manner hee went vp and downe brauing it especially ouer an iron bridge which hee had of purpose built to passe and repasse ouer at his pleasure vntill Gods long suffering could not endure any longer such outragious and presumptuous madnesse but sent a thunderbolt from heauen vpon his head that all the world might see by his destruction the exceeding folly and vaine pride which bewitched him in his life time Which history the Poet in the person of Sibilla setteth downe at large to this effect I saw Salmon in cruell torments lie For counterfatting thunder of the skie And Ioues cleare lightning whilst with torches bright Drawne with foure steedes and brandishing his light He rode triumphantly through Elis streats And made all Grecia wonder at his feats Thinking to win the honor of a god Mad as he was by scattertng fire abroad With brazen engines and with courses faining A noise like that which in the clouds is raining And no where else but God from thickest skie No torch but such a thunderbolt let flie At him that headlong whirld him from his cell And tumbled downe into the deepest hell Thus this arrogant king was punished according to the quality of his offence euen in the same kind wherin he offended which thing though it bee found written in a Poet yet ought not be reiected for an old wiues tale seeing it is not incredible that a king might make such pastimes yron crashing noises nor that he might be iustly punished for the same and the rather because Caligula did the like as wee haue heard before And we read also that one Arthemisius in the time of the Emperour Iustinian counterfeited by certain engines and deuises in his owne house in Constantinople Agath lib. 5. bell Gothis such earthquakes lightnings and thunders that would astonish a wise braine to heare or behold them on a sodaine But aboue all others that by darkening the glorie of God to encrease their own power haue prowdly exalted theÌ„selues against him the Popes are the ringleaders whose vnbrideled boldnes hath ben so much the more impudent pernicious for that in tearming themselues the seruants of the seruants of God in word in deed take vnto them the authoritie and power of God himself as of pardoning absoluing sins creating laws ordinances at their pleasure in binding or vnbinding mens consciences which things appertain to God only nay they haue ben so brasen faced as to coÌ„mand Angels and deuils as Clement the fift did in one of his buls so impudent as to be carried like idols vpon their vassalâ— shoulders weare three crownes vpon their heads so prowd and arrogant as to constraine kings and Emperours to kisse their feet to make them their vassals to vsurpe Lordship dominion ouer them and all their lands and possessions and to dispossesse whome they like not of kingdomes enstall in their roomes whom they please and all this by the thunder of excommunication whereby they make themselues feared and stood in awe of By which dealings of theirs they verifie in themselues that which the scripture speaketh of Antichrist which is the man of sinne the sonne of perdition 2. Thes 2.3 an aduersarie and one that exalteth himselfe against all which is called God or which is worshipped till he bee set as a god in the temple of God shewing himselfe that he is God Wherefore also the heauie vengeance of God is manifest vpon them by the great and horrible punishments they haue beene tormented with for some of them haue had their eies pulled out others haue died in prisons a third sort haue beene smothered to death a fourth hath beene killed with the sword a fift hath died with hunger a sixt bene stoned a seuenth poysoned and yet there hath not wanted an eigth sort whom the deuill himselfe hath stifled This it is to ouerreach the clouds Sabel Aenead 9. lib. 7. Iohn le Maire de Besges Niâ—h Giles of the Chronicles of Fraunce and not content with earthly power to vsurpe a supremacy and praeeminence ouer kings such was the pride of Pope Boniface the eigth wheÌ„ he sent an embassage to Philip the Faire king of France to command him to take vpon him an expedition against the Sarasens beyond the sea vpon paine of forfeiting his kingdome into his hands and when hauing his sword by his side he shamed not to say that he alone and none else was Emperour and Lord of all the world in demonstration wherof he bestowed the Empire vpon Duke Albert together with the crowne of Fraunce and not content herewith his insolencie was so importunat that he charged Philip the Faire to acknowledge himselfe to bee his subiect in all causes as well spirituall as temporall and to leuie a subsidie for his holinesse out of his Clergie disabling his authority in bestowing church liuings which prerogatiue hee chalenged to his sea the conclusion of this bull was in these words Aliud credentes fatitos reputamus as much to say as whosoeuer is of another mind then this we esteeme him a foole Wherevnto
truth taking the witnesse of the two women touching that which they had seene Here wee may see the strange and terrible euents of Gods iust vengeance vpon such vile caitifes which doubtlesse are made manifest to strike a feare and terror into the heart of euery swearer and denier of God the world being but too full at this day of such wretches that are so inspired with Sathan that they cannot speak but they must name him euen him that is both an enemie to God man and like a roaring lion runneth and roueth to fro to deuoure them not seeking any thing but mans destruction And yet when any paine assaileth thē or any trouble disquieteth their minds or any danger threatneth to oppresse their bodies desperately they cal vpon him for aid whē indeed it were more needful to commend themselues to God and to pray for his grace and assistance hauing both a commandement so to doe and a promise adioined that hee will helpe vs in our necessitie if we come vnto him by true hearty praier It is not therfore without iust cause that God hath propounded and laid open in this corrupt age a Theatre of his iudgements that euery man might be warned thereby CHAP. XXXIII More examples of Gods Iudgements vpon cursers BVt before wee goe to the next commandement we will adioine a few more examples of this diuellish cursing Martin Luther hath left registred vnto vs a notable example showne vpon a Popish priest that was once a professour of the sincere religion Ex colliquij◠Lutheri and fell away voluntarily vnto papisme whereof Adam Budissina was the reporter this man thundered out most bitter curses against Luther in the pulpit at a towne called Ruthnerwald and amongst the rest wished that if Luthers doctrine was true a thunderbolt might strike him to death Now three daies after there arose a mighty tempest with thunder and lightning whereat the cursed priest bearing in himselfe a guilty conscience for that he had vntruly and maliciously spoken ran hastily into the church and there fell to his praiers before the altar most deuoutly but the vengeance of God found him out and his hipocrisie so that he was stroken dead with the lightning and albeit they recouered life in him againe yet as they led him homewards through the churchyard another flash so set vpon him that it burnt him from the crowne of the head to the sole of his foot as blacke as a shoe so that he died with a manifest marke of Gods vengeance vpon him Homil. 26. in hist passionis Theodorus Beza reporteth vnto vs two notable histories of his owne knowledge of the seuerity of Gods iudgement vpon a curser and a periurer the tenour whereof is this I knew saith he in France a man of good parts well instructed in religion and a master of a family who in his anger cursing and bidding the Deuill take one of his children had presently his wish for the child was possessed immeadiately with a spirit from which though by the feruent continual praiers of the church he was at length released yet ere hee had fully recouered his health he died The like we read to haue happened to a woman whom her husband in anger deuoted with bitter curses to the deuill for Satā assaulted her presently and robbed her of her wits so that she could neuer be recouered Discipulus de tempore sermon 116. Periurie lib. 1. cap. 29. Another example saith he happened not far hence euen in this countrie vpon a periurer that forswore himselfe to the end to deceiue and preiudice another thereby but hee had no sooner made an end of his false oth but a greeuous apoplexie assailed him so that without speaking any one word he died within few daies Iob Fincelius lib. 3. de mirac In the year of our Lord 1557 the day before good friday at Forchennum a citie in the bishoprick of Bamburge there was a certain crooked priest both in body mind through age euil conditions that could not go but on crutches yet would needs be lifted into the pulpit to make a sermon his text was out of the 11 chap. of the first epistle to the Corinthians touching the Lords supper whereout taking occasion to defend the papisticall errors the masse he vsed these or such like blasphemous speeches O Paul Paul if thy doctrin touching the receiuing the sacrament in both kinds be true if it be a wicked thing to receiue it otherwise then would the deuill might take me turning to the people if the popes doctrin concerning this point be not true then am I the deuils bondslaue neither do I fear to pawn my soule vpō it these many other blasphemous words he vsed till the deuil came indeed transformed into the shape of a tall man black terrible sending before him such a fearful noise and such a wind that the people supposed that the church would haue fallen on their heads but he not able to hurt the rest took away the old priest being his deuoted bondslaue caried him so far that he was neuer heard of the bishop of Rugenstines brother hardly escaped his hands for he came back to fetch him but he defēding himselfe with his sword wounded his own body very narrowly escaped with his life Beside after this there were many visions seen about the city as armies of men ready to enter surprise them so that wel was he that could hide himself in a corner At another time after the like noise was heard in the church whilst they were baptising an infant al this for the abominable cursing and blasphemie of the prophane priest In the yeare of our Lord 1556 at S. Gallus in Heluetia Iob. Fincelius lib. 2. de mirac a certaine man that earned his liuing by making clean rough and foule linnen against the sunne entring a tauerne tasted so much the grape that his wits were drowned and his tongue so inspired that hee vomited out terrible curses against himselfe and others among the rest he wished if euer he went into the fields to his old occupation that the deuil might come break his neck but when sleep had conquered drink sobriety restored his senses he wēt again to his trade remēbring indeed his late wordes but regarding them not howbeit the deuill to shew his double diligence attended on him at his appointed houre in the likenes of a big sworthy man and asked him if he remembred his promise and vow which he had made the day before if it were not lawful for him to break his necke and withall stroke the poore man trembling with feare ouer the shoulders that his feet and his hands presently dried vp so that hee lay there not able to stirre till by helpe of men he was caried home the Lord not giuing the deuill so much power ouer him as hee wished himselfe but yet permitting him to plague him on this
on their iourney they came riding ouer a great bridge vpon which this gentleman swearer spurred his horse in such sort that he sprang cleane ouer with the man on his backe who as he was going cried Horse and man and al to the deuill This terrible storie bishop Ridley preached and vttered at Paules crosse and one Haines a minister of Cornwall the reprehender of this man was the reporter of it to Maister Fox out of whom I haue drawne it Refraine then wretches that you are your diuellish tongues leaue off to prouoke the wrath of God any longer against you forbeare all wicked and cursed speeches and acquaint your selues as well in word as deed to praise and glorifie God CHAP. XXXIIII Punishments for the contempt of the word and the Sacraments and abuse of holy things NOw it is another kind of taking the name of God in vain to despise his words and sacraments for like as among earthly princes it is accounted a crime no lesse then treason either to abuse their pictures to counterfeit or depraue their seales to rent pollute or corrupt their letter patents or to vse vnreuerently their messengers or any thing that cōmeth frō them So with the prince of heauen it is a sin of high degree either to abuse his word prophanely which is the letter patents of our saluation or handle the sacraments vnreuerētly which are the seales of his mercy or to despise his ministers which are his messēgers vnto vs. And this he maketh known vnto vs not only by edicts cōmandemēts but also by examples of his vēgeance on the heads of the offēders in this case for the former look what Paul saith That for the vnworthy receiuing of the Sacraments many were weake and sicke among the Corinthians many slept how much more then for the abusing contemning the Sacraments 1. Cor. 11.29.30 And the prophet Dauid That for casting the word of God behind them Psal 50.16.17 they should haue nothing to doe with his couenāt how much more then for prophaning deriding his word Exod. 16.8 And Moses when the people murmured against him and Aaron saith that their murmurings were not against them which were but ministers but against the Lord how much more then is the Lord engaged when they are scoffed at derided set at naught hence it is that the Lord denounceth a woe to him that addeth or taketh away frō the word and calleth them dogs that abuse such precious pearles Deut. 4.2 12.22 Apoc. 22.18 Prouerb 30.6 Vide lib. 1. cap. 14. example of the Iews But let vs come to the examples wherin the grieuousnesse of this sin will lie more open then by any words can bee expressed Denterius an Arrian bishop being at Bezantium as he was about to baptise one Barbas after his blasphemous maner saying I baptise thee in the name of the father through the son in the Holy-ghost Which forme of words is contrary to the prescript rule of Christ that bad his disciples to baptize al nations In the name of the father the son and the Holy-ghost the water sodenly vanished so that he could not then bee baptised wherefore Barbas all amased fled from thence to a church of purer religion and there was entertained into the church by baptisme Socrat. lib 7. cap. 17. Socrates in his Ecclesiasticall hystorie reporteth the like accident to haue happened to a Iew who had beene oftentimes baptised and came to Paulus a Nouatian bishop to receiue the sacrament againe but the water as before vanished and his villany being detected hee was banished the church Opiat Meltuit lib. 2. contr Parenianum Cent. 4. cap. 6. Vrbanus Farmensis and Foelix Iducensis two Donatists by profession rushing into Thipasa a Citty of Mauritania commaunded the Eucharist to bee throwne amongst the dogges but the dogges growing mad thereby set vpon their owne maisters and rent them with their teeth as being guiltie of despising the body of Christ certainely a noble iudgement to condemne the wicked behauiour of those miscreants who were so profane as not onely to refuse the sacrament themselues Vide lib. 1 ca. 17. but also to cast it to their dogs as if it were the vilest and contemptablest thing in the world Theopompus a Philosopher being about to insert certaine things out of the writings of Moses into his prophane workes and so to abuse the sacred word of God was stroken with a frensie and being warned of the cause therof in a dreame Ioseph antiq lib. 12. cap. 2. by praiers made vnto God recouered his senses againe this story is recorded by Iosephus as also another of Theodectes a Poet that mingled his Tragedies with the holy Scripture and was therefore stroken with blindnesse vntill hee had recanted his impiety In a towne of Germany called Itzsith there dwelt a certaine husbandman that was a monstrous despiser and prophaner of the word of God and his sacraments Luther in coloquijs he vpon a time amidst his cups railed with most bitter tearmes vpon a minister of Gods word after which going presently into the fields to ouerlooke his sheep he neuer returned aliue but was found there dead with his body all scorched and burnt as black as a coale the Lord hauing giuen him ouer into the hands of the deuill to be thus vsed for his vile prophanesse and abusing his holy things This D. Iustus Ionas in Luthers conferences reporteth to be most true In the yeare of our Lord 1553 a certaine coblers seruant being brought vp among the professors of the reformed religion and hauing receiued the sacrament in both kinds Philip Melanc after liuing vnder Poperie receiued it after their fashion in one kind but when hee returned to his old maister and was admonished by him to goe againe to the communion as he was wont then his sleepie conscience awaked and hee fell into most horrible despaire crying that hee was the deuils bondslaue and therewithall threw himselfe headlong out of the window so that with the fall his bowels gushed out of his mouth and he died most miserably When the great persecution of the Christians was in Persia vnder king Sapor in the yeare of our Lord 347 Sozomen lib. 2. cap. 31. there was one Miles an holy bishop and constant Martyr who preaching Vide lib. r. ca. 16. exhorting suffering all manner of torments for the truth of the gospel could not conuert one soule of the whole citie whereof he was bishop to the faith wherfore in hatred and detestation of it he forewent it cleane but after his departure the Lord made them worthily rue their contempt of his word for he sent the spirit of deuision betwixt king Sapor and thē so that he came with an army of men three hundred Eliphants against it and quickly subuerted it that the very appearence memorial of a city was quite defaced and rooted out for certainely this is a sure position
where Gods word is generally despised not regarded nor profited by there some notable destruction approcheth Philip Melanc in collectaneis Manlij In a certain place there was acted a tragedie of the death and passion of Christ in shew but indeed of themselues for hee that plaied Christs part hanging vpon the crosse was wounded to death by him that should haue thrust his sword into a bladder full of blood tied to his side who with his fall slew another that plaied one of the womens part that lamented vnder the crosse his brother that was first slaine seeing this slew the murderer and was himselfe by order of iustice hanged therfore so that this tragedie was concluded with four true not counterfeit deaths and that by the diuine prouidence of God who can endure nothing lesse then such prophane and ridiculous handling of so serious and heauenly matters In the Vniuersitie of Oxford the historie of Christ was also plaied and cruelly punished that not many years since for he that bore the person of Christ the Lord stroke him with such a giddinesse of spirit braine that he became mad forthwith crying when he was in his best humour that God had laid this iudgement vpon him for playing Christ Three other actors in the same play were hanged for robbing as by credible report is affirmed Most lamentable was the iudgement of God vpon one Iohn Apowel somtimes a seruingman for mocking iesting at the word of God this Iohn Apowell hearing one William Malden reading certaine English praiers mocked him after euery word with cōtrary gauds flouting termes insomuch that at last he was terribly afraid so that his hair stood vpright on his head and the next day was found besides his wits crying night and day without ceasing The deuill the deuill Acts and monuments pag. 2103. O the deuill of hell now the deuill of hell there he goeth for it seemed to him as the other read Lord haue mercie vpon vs at the end of the praier that the deuill appeared vnto him and by the permission of God depriued him of his vnderstanding this is a terrible example for all those that bee mockers at the word of God to warne them if they do not repent least the vengeance of God fall vpon them in like manner Thus wee see how seuerely the Lord punisheth all despisers and prophaners of his holy things and thereby ought to learne to carrie a most dutifull regard and reuerence to them as also to note them for none of Gods flocke whosoeuer they be that deride or contemne any part of religion or the ministers of the same CHAP. XXXV Of those that prophane the Sabboth day IN the fourth last commandement of the first table it is said Remember to keep holy the sabboth day by which words it is ordained and enioined vs to seperate one day of seuen from al bodily and seruile labor not to idlenes loosenes but to the worship of God which is spirituall and wholesome Which holy ordināce whē one of the childrē of Israel in contempt broke as they were in the wildernesse Numb 15. by gathering stickes vpon the sabboth he was brought before Moses Aaron the whole congregation by them put in prison vntill such time as they knew the Lords determination concerning him knowing well that he was guiltie of a most grieuous crime And at length by the Lords owne sentence to his seruant Moses condemned to be stoned to death without the host as was speedily executed wherin the Lord made known vnto them both how vnpleasant odious the prophanation of his Sabboth was in his sight and how seriously and carefully euery one ought to obserue and keepe the same Now albeit that this strict obseruation of the sabboth was partly ceremoniall vnder the law and that in Christ Iesus wee haue an accomplishment as of all other so also of this ceremonie hee being the true sabboth and assured repose of our soules yet seeing wee still stand in need of some time for the instruction and exercise of our faith it is necessarie that we should haue at least one day in a weeke to occupie our selues in and about those holy and godly exercises which are required at our hands and what day fitter for that purpose then sunday Which was also ordained in the Apostles time for the same end and called by them Des dominicus that is The day of our Lord Because vpon that day he rose from the dead to wit the morrow after the Iewes sabboth being the first day of the weeke to which sabboth it by cōmon consent of the church succeeded to the end that a difference might be put betwixt Christians Iews Therfore it ought now religiously to be obserued as it is also commanded in the ciuil law with expresse prohibition not to abuse this day of holy rest in vnholy sports pastimes Cod. lib. 3. tit 12. leg 10. of euill example Neuerthelesse in steed hereof we see the euill emploiance abuse and disorder of it for the most part for beside the false worship and plentifull superstitions which raigne in so many places all manner of disorder and dissolutenesse is in request beareth sway in these daies this is the day for tipling houses and tauernes to be fullest fraught with ruffians and ribalds and for villanous and dishonest speech with lecherous and baudie songes to be most rise this is the day when gourmandise and drunkennesse shew themselues most frollick othes blasphemies flie thickest and fastest this is the day when dicing dancing whoring and such noisome and dishonest demeanours muster their bands and keep ranke togither from whence fome out enuies hatreds displeasures quarrels debates bloodsheddings and murders as daily experience testifieth All which things are euident signes of Gods heauy displeasure vpon the people where these abuses are permitted and no difference made of that day wherin God would be serued but is cōtrarily most dishonored by the ouerflow of wciked examples And that it is a thing odious and condemned of God these examples following will declare Gregory Turonensis reporteth that a husbandman who vpon the Lords day went to plow his field as he cleansed his plowshare with an iron the iron stucke so fast into his hand that for two yeeres hee could not be deliuered from it but carried it about continually to his exceeding great paine and shame Discipulus de tempore ser 117. Another profane fellow without any regard of God or his seruice made no conscience to conuey his corne out of the field on the Lords day in sermon time but hee was well rewarded for his godlesse couetousnesse for the same corne which with so much care he gathered togither was consumed with fire from heauen with the barne and all the graine that was in it A certaine noble man vsed euery Lords day to go a hunting in the sermon while Theatr. hist which impietie the Lord punished
and being demanded what he ailed he halfe asleep answered That his friend Ausanius and his wife whome hee had slaine long agoe summoned him to Iudgement before God vpon which confession he was apprehended and after due examination stoned to death Thus though all witnesses faile yet a murderers owne conscience will bewray him Pipin and Martellus his sonne kings of France enuying prosperity and ease Casp hed lib. 6. cap. 17. fell into diuers monstrous sinnes as to forsake their wiues and follow whores which filthinesse when the Bishop of Tungria reprooued Dodo the harlots brother murdered him for his labour but he was presently taken with the vengeance of God euen a lousie and most filthie disease with the griefe and stinke whereof being mooued he threw himselfe into the riuer Mosa and there was drowned How manifest and euident was the vengeance of God vpon the murderers of Theodoricke hishop of Treuerse Martian Scotus Conrade the author of it died suddenly the souldier that helped to throw him downe from the rocke Hermanus contractus was choaked as he was at supper two other seruants that laid too their hands to this murder slew themselues most desperately About the yeere of our Lord 700 Geilian the wife of Gosbert prince of Wurtiburg Casp Hed. lib. 6. cap. 10. being reprooued by Kilianus for incest for she married her husbands brother wrought such meanes that both hee and his brethren were depriued of their liues but the Lord gaue her vp to Satan in vengeance so that she was presently possessed with him and so continued till her dying day A certaine woman of Millaine in Italy hung a young boy and after deuoured him instead of meat when as she wanted none other victuals and when shee was examined about the crime shee confessed that a spirit persuaded her to doe it telling her that after it she should attaine vnto whatsoeuer she desired for which murder shee was tormented to death by a lingring and grieuous punishment This Arlunus reporteth to haue happened in his time And surely howsoeuer openly the deuill sheweth not himselfe yet hee is the moouer and persuader of all murders and commonly the detector For hee delighteth in mens bloods and their destruction as in nothing more At Winsheime in Germanie a certaine theefe after many â—obberies murders committed by him vpon trauailers and women with child went to the shambles before Easter and bought three calues heads which when he put into a wallet they seemed to the standers by to be mens heads Theat histor Though strange yet not incredible since God can as well turne calues heads into mens as a rod into a serpent or water into blood Whereof being attached searched by the officers and found so indeed hee being examined how hee came by them answered and proued by witnesses that he bought calues heads how they were transformed hee knew not Whereat the Senat amazed not supposing this miracle to arise of naught cast the partie into prison and tortured him to confesse the villany whereof the Lord would haue him detected as hee did indeed and was worthely punished for the same and then the heads recouered their old shapes Another theefe at Tubing betraied his murder robbery by his own sighes 8. Mandat lib. 2 cap. 35. which were so incessant in griefe not of his fact but of his small bootie that being but asked the question he confessed the crime and vnderwent worthy punishment Another murderer in Spaine was discouered by the trembling of his heart for when many were suspected of the murder and all renounced it the iudge caused all their breasts to bee opened and him in whom he saw most trembling of breast hee condemned who also could not deny the fact but presently confessed the same At Isenacum a certaine young man being in loue with a maid not hauing wherewith to maintain her vsed this vnlawfull means he vpon a night slew his host 8. Mandat lib. 2. cap. 35. throwing his body into the seller tooke away all his money and then hasted away but the terror of his owne conscience and the iudgement of God so besotted him that he could not stirre a foot vntill he was appreheÌ„ded At the same time Martin Luther Philip Melancton abode at Isenacum were eie witnesses of this miraculous iudgement who also dealt with the murderer that in most humble and penitent confession of his sins comfort of soule he ended his life By all these exaÌ„ples we see how hard it is for a murderer to escape without his reward Nay rather then he shal go vnpunished sencelesse creatures and his owne soule riseth to giue sentence against him In the yeare of our Lord 1546 Iohn Diazius a Spaniard by birth liuing a student and professor in Paris came first to Geneua and then to Strasbrough and there by the grace of Gods spirit saw his Sorbonicall errors and renounced them betaking himselfe to the profession of the purer religion and the company and acquaintance of godly men amongst whome was Bucer that excellent man who sent him also to Nurnburge to ouersee the printing of a booke which he was to publish Sleid. lib. 17. Whilst Diazius liued at this Nurnburge a citie scituate vpon the riuer Dimow his brother a lawier and iudge lateriall to the inquisition by name Alphonsus came thither and by all meanes possible endeuoured to dissuade him from his religon and to reduce him againe to Poperie But the good man persisted in the truth notwithstanding all his persuasions and threats wherfore the subtile foxe tooke another course and faining himselfe to bee conuerted also to his religion exhorted him to goe with him into Italy where he might doe much good or at the least to August but by the counsaile of Bucer and his friends hee was kept backe otherwise willing to follow his brother Wherefore Alphonsus departed exhorteth him to constancy perseuerance giuing him also foureteeene crownes to defray his charges Now the Wolfe had not ben three daies absent when he hired a rakehell and common butcher and with him flew again to Nurnburge in post hast and comming to his brothers lodging deliuered him a letter which whilest he read the villain his confederate cleft his head in peeces with an axe leauing him dead vpon the floore and so fled with all expedition Howeit they were apprehended yet quit by the Popes iustice so holy and sacred are the fruits of his holinesse though not by the iustice of God for within a while after hee hung himselfe vpon his mules necke at Trent Duke Abrogastes slew Valentinian the Emperour of the West and aduanced Eugenius to the crowne of the Empire but a while after the same sword which had slaine his Lord and maister was by his owne hands turned into his own bowels Mempricius the sonne of Madan the fourth king of England then called Britaine after Brute Lanquet chron had a brother called Manlius
herewith he poisoned also the heires of Fredericke to the end hee might attaine vnto the crowne as Conrade his elder brother and his nephew the sonne of Henry the heire which Henry died in prison now only Conradinus remained betwixt him and the kingdome whome though he assailed to send after his father yet was his intention frustrate for the Pope thundered out his curses against him and instigated Charles duke of Angiers to make warre against him wherein bastard and vnnaturall Manfred was discomfited and slaine and cut short of his purpose for which he had committed so many tragedies Luther Martin Luther was wont to report of his owne experience this wonderfull history of a locksmith a young man riotous and vicious who to find fuell for his luxury was so bewitched that he feared not to slay his owne father and mother with a hammer to the end to gaine their mony and possessions after which cruell deed he presently went to a shomaker and bought him new shoes leauing his old behind him by the prouidence of God to be his accusers for after an houre or two the slaine bodies being found by the magistrate and inquisition made for the murderer no manner of suspition being had of him hee seeming to take such griefe thereat But the Lord that knoweth the secrets of the heart discouered his hypocrisie and made his owne shoes which he had left with the shoemaker rise vp to beare witnesse against him for the blood which ran from his fathers wounds besprinkled them so that thereof grew the suspition from thence the examination very soone the confession last of all his worthy lawfull execution From hence wee may learne for a generall truth that murder neuer so secret will euer by one means or other be discouered the Lord will not suffer it to goe vnpunished so abominable it is in his sight Another sonne at Bosil in the yere of our Lord God 1560 bought a quantitie of poison of an Apothecary Casp Hed. 4. part chron ministred it to none but to his owne father accounting him worthiest of so great a benefit which when it had effected his wish vpon him the crime being detected in stead of possessing his goods which he aimed at hee possessed a vile and shamefull death for he was drawne through the streets burnt with hot irons and tormented nine houres in a wheele till his life forsooke him As it is repugnant to nature for children to deale thus cruelly with their parents so it is more against nature for parents to murder their children insomuch as naturall affection is of greater force in the descent then in the ascent the loue that parents beare their children is greater then that which children redound to their parents because the child proceedeth from the father and not the father from the child as part of his fathers essence and not the father of his Can a man then hate his owne flesh or be a rooter out of that which himselfe planted It is rare yet sometimes it commeth to passe Howbeit as the offence is in a high degree so it is alwaies punished by some notable and high iudgement as by these examples that follow shall appeare The ancient Ammonites had an idoll called Moloch to the which they offered their children in sacrifice this idoll as the Iewes write was of a great stature and hollow within hauing seuen chambers in his hollownesse whereof one was to receiue meate another turtle doues the third a sheepe the fourth a ram the fift a calfe the sixt an oxe and the seuenth a child his hands were alwaies extended to receiue gifts and when a child was offered they were made fire hot to burne it to death none must offer the child but the father to drowne the cries of it the Chemarims for so were the priests of that idoll called made a noise with bels cymbals and hornes thus it is written that king Achab offered his son yea many of the children of Israel beside as the Prophet Dauid affirmeth They offered saith he their sonnes and daughters to deuils shed innocent blod Psal 106 37 38. euen the blood of their children whom they offered vnto the idols of Canaan and their land was defiled with blood this is the horrible crime Now mark the iudgemēt touching the Canaanites the land spued them out for their abominations Achab with his posterity was accursed himselfe being slaine by his enemies and the crowne taken from his posterity not one being left of his off-spring to pisse against the wal according to the saying of Elias as for the Iewes the Prophet Dauid in the same place declareth their punishment when he saith That the wrath of the Lord was kindled Vers 40. and he abhorred his inheritance and gaue them into the hands of the heathen that they that hated them were lords ouer them In the yeere of our Lord 1551 in a towne of Hassia called Weidenhasten Iob. Fincel llb. 1. de mirac the 20 day of Nouember a cruell mother inspired with Satan shut vp all her dores and began to murder her foure children on this manner shee snatcht vp a sharpe axe and first set vpon her eldest sonne being but eight yeeres old searching him out with a candle behind a hogs-head where he hid himselfe and presently notwithstanding his pitifull praiers and complaints claue his head in two peeces and chopped off both his armes next shee killed her daughter of fiue yeeres old after the same manner another little boy of three yeeres of age seeing his mothers madnes hid himselfe poore infant behind the gate whome assoone as the tygre espied she drew out by the haire of the head into the floore and there cut off his head the youngest lay crying in the cradle but halfe a yeere old him shee without all compassion pluckt out and murdered in like sort These murders being finished the deuill incarnate for certen no womanly nature was left in her to take punishment of her selfe for the same cut her owne throat and albeit shee suruiued nine daies and confessing her fault died with teares and repenrance yet we see how it pleased God to arme her own hands against her selfe as the fittest executioners of his vengeance Theatr. hist The like tragicall accident we read to haue happened at Cutzenborff a city in Silesia in the yeere 1536 to a woman and her three children who hauing slaine them all in her husbands absence killed her selfe in like maner also to make vp the tragedie Concerning stepmothers it is a world to read how many horrible murders they haue vsually practised vpō their children in law to the end to bring the inheritance to their owne brood or at least to reuenge some iniury supposed to be done vnto them of which one or two examples I will subnect as a tast out of many hundred leauing the residue to the iudgement and reading of the learned Constantius the sonne of
same game Oros lib. 5. c. 24. whereat they had often times made themselues merry at their costs and to kill one another as they had beforetime caused them to doe How curious and desirous the people of Rome was wont to be of beholding these bloody and mischieiuous games Cornel. Tacit. Annal. lib. 4. Cornelius Tacitus in the fourth boooke of his Annales declareth at large where he reporteth That in the city of the Fidenauts in the twelfth yeere of the raigne of Tiberius the people being gathered togither to behold the fencers prises were fiftie thousand of them hurt and maimed at one time by the Amphitheatre that fell vpon them â— cruell pastime indeed and a strange accident not comming by aduenture as some suppose but by the iust vengeance of God to suppresse such pernicious and vnciuill sports The same storie is registred by Paulus Orosius in his seuenth booke with this adiection That at that time were slaine more than twenty thousand persons I can not passe ouer in silence two notable and memorable histories of two lyons Senec. lib. 1. de benefic recorded by two famous Authors Seneca the one and Aulus Gellius the other The first of whom reporteth that he saw on the Theatre a lyon who seeing a slaue that sometimes had beene his keeper throwen among the beasts to be deuoured acknowledged him and defended him from their teeth and would not suffer any of them to doe him hurt Aul. Gell. Noct. Attic. l. 5. c. 14. The second bringeth the testimony of one Appianus that affirmed himselfe to haue seene at Rome a lyon who for old acquaintance sake which he had with a condemned seruant fawned vpon him and cleared him in like manner from the fury of the other beasts the history was this A certaine bondslaue too roughly handled by his master forsooke him and fled away and in his flight retiring into a desart and not knowing how to bestow himselfe tooke vp a caue for his lodging where hee had not long abode but a mightie lyon came halting to his denne with a sore and bloody legge the poore slaue all forgone at this strange and ougly sight looked euery minute to be deuoured but the lyon in another moode came fawningly and softly towards him as if he would complaine vnto him of his griefe whereat somewhat heartened hee bethought himselfe to apply some medecine to his wound and to bind vp the sore as well as he could which hee had no sooner done but the lyon made out for his prey and ere long returning brought home to his host and surgeon certaine gobbets of raw flesh which he halfe rosting vpon a rocke by the sunne beames made his daily sustenance for the time of his abode there notwithstanding at length wearied with this odde sauage life and hating to abide long in that estate he forsooke the desart and put himselfe againe to aduenture now it chaunced that hee was taken by his old master and carried from Aegypt to Rome to the end to be an actour in those beastly tragedies but by good chance his old patient the lyon taken also since his departure being ready amongst other beasts to play his part knew him by and by and ranne vnto him fawning and making much of him the people wondering at this strange accident after enquiry made of the cause therof gaue him the Lion and caused him to lead him in a string through the city for a miracle for indeed both this and the former deserue no other name Thus God reprooueth the sauadge inhumanitie of men by the example of the wild and furious beasts at whose teeth poore seruants found more fauor than at their masters hands The Emperour Constantine weighing the indignitie of these and such like pastimes and knowing how farre they ought to be banished from the society of men by a publike edict abolished all such bloody and monstrous spectacles In like manner these monomachies and single combats perfourmed in places inclosed for the purpose wherein one at the least if not both must of necessitie die ought to be abrogated in a Christian pollicy as by the Laterane councill it was well enacted with this penalty That whosoeuer should in that manner be slaine his body should be depriued of Ecclesiasticall buriall and truely most commonly it commeth to passe that they that presuming most vpon their owne prowesse and strength are most forward in offering combat either loose their liues or gaine discredit which is more grieuous than death CHAP. XVII Of such as exercise too much rigor and Seueritie FVrthermore we must vnderstand that God doth not only forbid murder and bloodshed but also all tyranny and oppression therin prouiding for the weake against the strong the poore against the rich and bondslaues against their masters to the end that none might be trode vnder foote and oppressed of others vnder paine of his indignation Insomuch therefore as the Romans vsed such rigour towards their seruants it came to passe by a iust iudgement of God that they being lords ouer all the world were three sundry times driuen by their seruants into great extremities As first in Rome within the walles at the same time when they also were troubled with the seditious factioÌ„s of their tribunes Secondly in Sicily where they horribly laid wast the whole country the cause of which commotion was because the Romans had chained a multitude of slaues togither and in that order sent them to manure til the ground for a certain Sirian first assembled two thousand men of them that came next hand then breaking vp the prisons multiplied his army to forty thousand and with them pulled downe castles razed vp townes destroied euery where The third vndertaken by a shepheard who hauing killed his master set at liberty all the bondmen and prepared an army of them wherewith he spoiled cities townes castles discomfited the armies of Seruâ—lius and Lucullus who were Pretours at that time but at last they were destroied and rooted out by little and little and this good seruice got the Romanes at their seruants hands As euery nation hath his proper vertue and vice ascribed to it so the Spaniards for their part are noted famous for cruelty towards their subiects and vassals insomuch that as experience in many witnesseth they are intollerable in that kind for which cause they haue borne the marke of Gods iustice for their rigorous bâ—rbarous handling of the poore west Indians whom they haue brought to that extremity by putting them to such excessiue trauels in digging their mines of gold as namely in the island Hispagnola that the most part by sighes and teares wish by death to end their miseries Bonzoni Milan of the new world many first killing their children haue desperatly hung theÌ„selues on high trees some haue throwen themselues headlong from steepe mountaines and others cast themselues into the sea to be rid of their troubles but the tyrants haue neuer escaped
owne bibles Blessed are the poore for theirs is the kingdome of heauen but how this sacreligious theefe was punished Lib. 2. cap. 20. is already declared in the former booke Zonaras Leo Croponymus tooke out of the Temple of Constantinople an excellent crowne of gold beset with precious stones which Mauritius had dedicated to the Lord but assoone as he had set it on his head a cruell feuer seased vpon him that he died very shortly Fulg of lib. 1. chap. 2. The punishment of the sacriledge of Queene Vrratha in Spaine was most wonderful and speedie for when in her war against her son Alphonsus she wanted money she robbed the church dedicated to S. Isidore and tooke with her own hands the treasures vp which her souldiours refused to doe but ere she departed out of the church vengeance ouertook her and stroke her dead in the place Moreouer the Lord so hateth this ireligious sinne that he permitteth the deuil to exercise his cruelty vpon the spoilers of prophane and idolatrous temples as he did vpon Dionisius the tyrant of Siracusa Aelianus who after many robberies of holy things and spoiling the churches died sodainly with extream ioy as authors report hee spoiled the temple of Proserpina at Locris and shaued off the golden beard of Aesculapius at Epidamnum saying it was an vnseemely thing for Apollo to be beardlesse and his sonne bearded hee depriued Iupiter Olimpus of his golden raiment and gaue him a woollen coat in steed thereof saying it was too heauie for him in the summer and too cold in winter and that this was more conuenient for both seasons the pretext of al his sacriledge was this that seeing the Gods were good why should not he be pertaker of their goodnesse Such another was Cambises king of Persia Sabel lib. 4. c. 3. Herod lib. 1. who sent fiftie thousand men to rob and destroy the temple of Iupiter Ammon but in their iourney so mighty a tempest arose that they were ouerwhelmed with the sand not one of them remaining to carry news of their successe Brennus was constrained to slay himselfe for enterprising to rob the Temple of Apollo at Delphos Philomelus Fulgo lib. 1. c. 2. Onomarchus and Phayllus went about the same practise and indeed robbed the Temple of all the treasures therein but one of them was burned another drowned and the third broke his necke to conclude the Athenians put to death a yong child for taking but a golden plate out of Dianaes Temple but first they offered him otheriewels trinckets which when hee despised in respect of the plate they rigorously punished him as guilty of sacriledge Cardinal Wolsey being determined to erect two new colledges Stow. chron one at Oxford and the other at Ipswich obtained license and authoritie of Pope Clement the seuenth to suppresse about the number of fortie Monasteries to furnish and set forward the building of his said colledge which irreligious sacriledge I call it sacriledge because not done of conscience but to patch vp pride was furthered by fiue persons who were the chiefe instruments of the dissolution of Daintrey Monasterie because the Prior and Couent would not graunt them certaine lands in farme at their owne price But what punishment ensued vpon them at Gods hand the world was witnesse of for of those fiue persons two fell at discord amongst themselues and the one slue the other for the which the suruiuour was hanged the third drowned himselfe in a well the fourth being then worth two hundred pounds within three yeares became so poore that hee begged vntill his dying day and the fift called Doctor Allane was cruelly maymed in Ireland the Cardinall himselfe falling into the Kings displeasure was deposed from his Bishopricke and died miserablie the Colledges which hee ment to haue made so glorious a building came neuer to any good effect the one at Ipswich being cleane defaced the other at Oxford vnfinished And thus much of Sacriledge now let vs come and see the punishment of simple theft the principall cause whereof is couetousnesse which is so vnruly an euill and so deepe rooted in the heart of man that euer yet it hath vsed to encroch vpon the goods of others and to keepe possession of that which was none of it owne breaking all the bandes of humanity equity and right without being contained in any measure or mean whereof we haue a most notable example in the old world before the floud which by Moses report ouerflowed with iniquitie and extortion the mightie ones oppressed the weake the greater trod vnder foot the lesse and the rich deuoured the poore when the Lord saw the generall deluge of sinne and disorder thus vniuersally spread which indeed was a signe of great defection and contempt of him hee like a iust iudge that could not endure these monstrous iniquities sent a deluge of waters amongst them by opening the windows of heauen and breaking vp the fountaines of the great deepes and giuing passage to the waters both by heauen and by earth so that it rained fortie daies and fortie nights without ceasing and the waters preuailed vpon the earth and ouercouered the high mountaines by fifteene cubites the earth being reduced into the same estate which it had in the beginning before the waters were tooke away from the face thereof verily it was a most hideous and sad spectacle to see first the vallies then the hils and last the highest mountaines so ouerflowne with water that no shew or appearance of thē might be perceiued it was a dreadful sight to behold whole houses tossed to and fro vp and downe in the waues and at last to be shiuered in peeces there was not a citie nor village that perished not in the deepe not a tree nor tower so high that could ouerpeere the waters as they encreased more and more in abundance so feare horror and despaire of safetie encreased in the heart of euery liuing soule And on this fashion did God punish those wicked rebels not at one blow but by little and little encreasing their paine that as they had a long time abused his patience and made no reckoning of amendment so the punishment of their sinne might bee long and tedious Now in this extremitie one could not helpe another nor one enuie another but all were concluded vnder the same destruction all surprised assieged and enuironed alike aswell he that roued in the fields as he that staied in the houses he that climed vp vnto the mountains as hee that abode in the vallies the merciles water spared none it was to no purpose that some ascēded their high houses some climed vpon trees and some scaled the rockes neither one nor other found any refuge or safety in any place the rich were not saued by their riches nor the strong by the pith of their strēgth but all perished and were drowned togither except Noah and his familie which punishment was correspondent vnto the worlds iniquitie for
and brought all high and haughtie purposes to their desired effect being prickt forward with the spur of ambition and a high mind through the meanes and assistance of the mightie forces of the Commonwealth which contrary to the constitution of the Senate were left in his hands hee set footing into the state and making himself maister Lord of the whole Romane Empire vsurped a soueraigntie ouer theÌ„ But as he attained to his dignitie by force and violence so he inioied it not long Plutarch Sueton. â—â—â—rop neither gained any great benefit by it except the losse of his life may bee counted a benefite which shortly after in the open Senat was bereft him for the conspirers therof assoon as he was set down in his seat coÌ„passing him about so vehemently ouercharged him on all sides that notwithstanding al the resistance he could make for his defence tossing amongst them and shifting himselfe vp and downe he was ouerthrowne on the earth and abode for dead through the number of blowes that were giuen him euen three and twentie wounds The monarchie of Assyria was at one instant extinguished in Sardanapalus and of Babylon in Balthasar Arbaces being the worker of the first and Darius king of Persia of the latter both of them receiuing the wages not of their wickednesse but also of their predecessours great grandfathers crueltie and oppressions by whome many people and nations had bene destroied Moreouer as the Babylonian Empire was ouerthrowne by Darius of Persia so was his Persian kingdome in Darius the last king of that country his time this mans successour ouerturned by Alexander Againe the great dominion of Alexander who suruiued not long after was not continued to any of his by inheritance but deuided like a prey amongst his greatest captaines and from them the most part of it in short time descended to the Romans who spreading their wings and stretching their greedie talents far and neere for a while rauened and preyed ouer all the world and enriched and bedecked themselues with the spoiles of many nations and therefore it was necessarie that they also should be made a prey and that the far fetcht Gothes and Vandales should come vpon them as vpon the body of a great Whale that suffers shipwracke vpon the sea shore since which time the Romane Empire went to decay and grew euery day weaker than other yea and many princes setting themselues against and aboue it haue robbed it of the realmes and prouinces which it robbed others of before and thus wee may see how all things runne as it were in a circle and how great the vncertentie of this world is seeing that the mightiest are subiect to so many and great changes For if there be any thing vnder the sunne that may carry any shew of stabilitie or continuance surely it is a monarchie or common wealth grounded vpon the vnitie and consent of all people maintained by the authority of the greatest and most mightie and vnderpropped with the shores of much strength and wealth as that Romane Empire was and yet for all that there was neuer any though neuer so well reared and furnished and deepe rooted which at the length hath not bene demolished ransacked and pulled vp by some notable and strange calamity And this is that which the spirit of God would giue vs to know by the vision of that great image represented to Nabuchadnezzar in a dreame according to Daniels interpretation thereof to wit that the foure great and puissant monarchies of the world should at last bee ruinated and dispersed like the chaffe before the wind till they were consumed and brought to nothing albeit they were glorious and excellent as gold and siluer or strong and mightie as brasse and iron How much more foolish and euill aduised are they then that for a certaine apparant splendour and shew of worldly honour which is as fraile as any rose as variable as the wind as light and vaine as a shadow or smoke as vnassured as a rotten planke haue the eies of their minds so dazled and their wits so bewitched all their affections so transported as to mingle heauen and earth togither to dash the East against the West to stirre vp discord and dissention betwixt man and man and to shed so many thousand mens blood and all for a paltry desire of raigne though to their owne finall ruine and destruction Sabellicus And thus came it to passe in the time of the Emperor Otho to a duke of Venice called Peter Caudian who not content with his dukedome went about to vsurpe a tyrannicall rule ouer the whole segniory and that by pride and threats desiring rather to make himselfe terrible to the people by those bad means than amiable and beloued by any meanes whatsoeuer and thus daily he grew as in age so in insolencie hee placed a garrison of men about his pallace and so fortifying himselfe presently he shewed himselfe in his colours namely a cruell tyrant which when the multitude perceiued and remembred withall their liberty which they were like to lose they tooke vp armes forthwith in purpose to beat downe his hautie mind therefore they first set on fire his house and caused him to forsake his fortresse and to betake himselfe to his shifts but when by reason of the stopping of the passages he could not escape they tooke him and his young sonne also which was with him and put them to a most cruell and suddaine death and cast their carcasses to be deuoured of dogs In the Empire of Maximilian Lewes Sforce Bemhâ—â— lib. 2. of the Venâ—â—â— historie a prince of an inconstant and turbulent spirit ambitious and one that made no account of his promises nor faith tooke vpon him the gouernment of Millaine after the death of his brother Galeaz duke of Millaine who was traiterously slaine in which action the first wrong which he did was to his brothers widow whome hee deposed the second to his young nephew his brother Galeaz sonne whome he so brought vp as if hee neuer meant he should come to honour or goodnes for hee suffered him not to be trained vp either in learning or armes but let him runne into all possible occasions that might corrupt and spoile his tender age thus hee enioyed the principalitie thirteene yeeres all the while vnder his nephewes raine to whome when Alphonsus king of Naples had giuen in marriage one of his daughters and perceiued what small reckoning his vncle made of restoring him his dukedome after hee had often and instantly entreated him without preuailing at length he fell to threaten him with warre he fearing to haue the worse and to loose so great a dignitie wrought so by his owne shifts and deuices togither with the helping hand of Pope Alexander that he put it in the head of Charles the eight of Fraunce to goe and conquer Naples for the hatred which his heart possessed against Alphonsus supposing by this meanes the better to accomplish
his affaires to his owne desire The king of France was no sooner entred Italy but Lewes Sforce ministred an Italian posset to his young nephew Iohn Galeaz that hee immediatle died vpon it Guicciard lib. 1. and then he proclaimed himselfe prince of the Duchie by the aid of the principall of the counsell whome hee had woon to defer that honor vnto him by deposing the yong sonne of Iohn Galeaz being then but fiue yeeres old but he declared presently his inconstant and perfidious nature in breaking promise with the king of Fraunce whome hee had induced with so many faire speeches to vndertake that voyage and entring a new league with the Venetians both against him and the Pope although ere long hee serued them with the same measure but Lewis the twelfth succeeding in the crowne of France could not brooke this iniury done to his predecessour but pretending a title to the Duchie of Millaine he dispatched an army thitherward that bestirred it selfe so well that in short space they brought vnder their subiection all the cities and townes neere adioyning which the citizens perceiuing begun to rebell against their duke and killed his treasurer whereupon he being not able to make his part good with the French abroad nor daring to put any confidence in his owne at home left his castle to the charge and custody of a captaine and fled himselfe with his children to Almaine towards the Emperour Maximilians court hoping to find succour at his hand as indeed he did for hee returned to Millaine with fiue hundred Burgundians and eight thousand Zwitzers and was receiued againe into the citie being thus refortified with these and other moe troupes that came vnto him he encamped before Nauarre and by composition got the city into his hands from the Frenchmen The French king in the meane while sent a new supply of men into the Duchie amongst whome were many Zwitzers who so dealt with their countrimen that were on the dukes side that they brought them also to fauour the king of France and to forsake the duke which when he vnderstood hee presently departed the city and posting to the campe hardened his souldiers desiring them to play the men and not to shrinke for hee meant to giue battell without delay but the captaines made answer That they might not fight against their owne nation without especiall leaue from their lords Now in the meane while whilst these things were in doing they tooke order that the Frenchmen should approch to Nouare and intercept all the passages that the duke might not escape hee therefore laid aside his horse and marched on foot in the squadron of Switzers now ioyned to the French in attire and armour like a Switzer thinking by this tricke to saue his life but all his counterfaiting could not saue him from being taken and from lying ten yeeres prisoner in the Tower of Loches where hee also died Gulcciard li. 4. and so all his high and ambitious thoughts which scarsely Italy could containe were pend vp in a straight and narrow roome With the like turbulent and furious spirit of ambition haue many Roman bishops bene inspired who what by their iuggling trickes cousenages and subtill deuises and what by force haue prospered so well that of simple bishops which they were wont to be they are growne temporall lords and as it were monarchs hauing in their possessions lands cities castles fortresses hauens garrisons and guards after the maner of kings nay they haue exalted themselues aboue kings so intollerable is their impudencie and made them subiect to their wils Marke 10. Luke 22. and yet they call themselues the Apostles petigree whome Christ forbad all such domination But what of that it pertaineth not to them to succeed in vertue but in authority the Apostles for if that charge had concerned them then Pope Lucius the second Bal. would neuer haue bene so shamelesse as to request in right of his popeship the soueraignty ouer Rome as he did neither when it was denied him to haue gone about to vsurpe it by force and to bring his mind about to haue laid siege to the Senate house with armed men to the end that either by banishing or murdering the Senatours then assembled togither he might inuest himselfe with the kingly dignitie But what got hee by it mary this The people beeing in an vprore in the citie vpon the sight of this holy fathers proud attempt took themselues to armes and ran with such violence vpon master Pope that they forthwith stoned his holinesse to death but not like Steuen the martyr for the profession of Christ Iesus but like a vile and seditious theefe for seeking the commonwealths ouerthrow Pope Adrian the fourteenth a monkes sonne succeeding Lucius both in the Papacie Saboll Bal. and also in ambition tooke in hand his omitted enterprises for hee excommunicated the Romanes vntill they had banished Arnold a Bishop that gaue them counsell to retaine the power of electing their magistrate and gouerning their citie in their hands a thing repugnant to his intent and after hee had degraded the consuls to make his part the stronger he caused the Emperour Fredericke to come with an army to the city whome notwithstanding hee handled but basely for his paines for hee did not onely checke him openly for standing on his feet and holding the stirrop of his horse with his left hand but also denied him the crowne of the Empire except he would restore to him Pouille which hee said pertained vnto him howbeit hee got the crowne notwithstanding and before his returne from Rome into Germany more then a thousand citizens that would not yeeld nor subscribe vnto the Popes will were slaine after Frederickes departure the Pope seeing himselfe destitute of his further aid first excommunicated the king of Sicilie that in right of inheritance possessed the foresaid Pouille but when this serued him to small purpose hee practised with Emmanuel the Emperour of Greece to set vpon him which thing turned to his finall confusion after this through his intollerable pride hee fell out with Fredericke the Emperour and to reuenge himselfe vpon him discharged his subiects from their fealty to him and him from his authoritie ouer them Now marke his end As hee walked one day towards Auiane a flie got in at his mouth and downe his throat so farre that it stopped the conduit of his breath so that for all that his phisitions could doe hee was choked therewith And thus hee that sought by all the meanes he could to make himselfe greater than hee ought to be and to get the mastery of euery thing at his owne will and pleasure and to take away other mens rights by force was cut short and rebated by a small and base creature and constrained to leaue this life which hee was most vnworthie of Hither may be referred that which befell the Emperour Albert duke of Austria and one of his lieutenants in Swizzerland for going about to
heauen with all his strength behold the dagger vanished away and fiue drops of blood distilled vpon the table before them and without all delay the deuill came in place and carried away that blasphemous wretch with such force and noise that the whole citie was amazed and astonished thereat the other two halfe beside themselues with feare stroue to wipe away the drops of blood out of the table but the more they wiped it the more clearely it appeared the rumour of this accident flew into the city and caused the people to flocke thicke and threefold vnto the place where they found the other two gamsters washing the boord whome by the decree of the Senat they bound with chaines and carried towards the prison but as they passed with them through a gate of the citie one of them was stroken suddenly dead in the midst of them with such a number of lice and wormes creeping out of him that it was both wonderfull and lothsome to behold the third they themselues without any further inquisition or triall to auert the indignation which seemed to hang ouer their heads put incontinently to death the table they tooke and preserued it for a monument to witnes vnto posterity both how an accursed a pastime dicing is and also what great inconueniences and mischiefes grow thereby But that wee may see yet more the vanity mischieuous working of this sport I will report one story more out of the same author though not equall to the former in strangenesse and height of sinne yet as tragicall and no lesse pitifull Iob. â—incel lib. 2. In the yeere 1550 their liued in Alsatia one AdaÌ„ Steckman one that got his liuing by trimming pruning dressing vines this man hauing receiued his wages fell to dice lost all that he had gotten insomuch that he had not wherwith to norish his family so that he fell into such a griefe of mind withall into such paines of the head that hee grew almost desperate withall one day his wife beeing busie abroad left the care of her children vnto him but he tooke such great care of them that he cut all their throats euen three of them whereof one lay in the cradle and lastly would haue hanged himselfe had not his wife come in in the meane while who beholding this pitifull tragedy gaue a great outcry and fell downe dead whereupon the neighbours running in were eie witnesses of this wofull spectacle as for him by law hee was iudged to a most seuere and cruell punishment and all these pitiful euents arose from that cursed root of dice-play Wee ought therefore to learne by all these things that haue bene already spoken to abstaine not only from this cursed pastime but also from extortion robberies deceit guile and other such naughty practises that tend to the hurt and detriment of one another and in place thereof to procure the good and welfare of each one in all kindnes and equitie following the Apostles counsel where he saith Let them that stole steale no more Ephes 4.28 but rather trauaile by labouring with his hands in that which is good that hee may haue wherewith to succour the necessitie of others for it is not enough not to do euill to our neighbour but we are tied to doe him good or at least to endeauour to doe it CHAP. XLII Of such as haue bene notorious in all kind of sinne WEe haue seene by these foreplaced examples These exaÌ„ples of this chapter may be referred to all the commaundements for the most part how heauy the iudgements of God haue beene vpon those that through the vntamednesse of their owne lusts and affections would not submit themselues vnder the holy and mighty will of God but haue countremanded his commandements and withstood his precepts some after one sort and some after another now because there haue beene some so wicked and wretched that being wholly corrupted and depraued they haue ouerflowed with all maner of sinne and iniquitie and as it were maugred God with the multitude and hainousnesse of their offences wee must therefore spend some time also in setting forth their liues and ends as of the most vile and monstrous kind of people that euer were In this ranke wee may place the ancient inhabitants of the land of Canaan an irreligious people void of all feare and dread of God and consequently giuen ouer to all abominable wickednesse as to couiurings witchcrafts and vnnameable adulteries for which causes the Lord abhorring and hating them did also bring them to a most strange destruction for first and formost Iericho the frontier citie of their country being assaulted by the Israelites for bindering their progresse into the countrey were all discomfited not so much by Iosuah his sword as by the huge stones which dropped from heauen vpon their heads and least the night ouerraking them should breake off the small and full destruction of this cursed people the day was miraculously prolonged the sunne made to rest himselfe in the midst of heauen the space of a whole day so these fiue kings hiding themselues in a caue were brought but their necks made a footstoole to the captains of Israel were hanged on fiue trees Semiramis queene of Assyria was a woman of an ambitious spirit Sabell who through her thirst of raigning counterfaited her sexe and attired her selfe like a man to get more authority and reuerence to her selfe shee was the destruction of many thousand people by the vniust warre which the stirred vp besides that shee was a notorious strumpet and withall a murderer of those that satisfied her lust for still as they came from her bed some lay priuily in watch to kill them least they should bewray her villany yea and it is reported that shee was so vile and past shame that shee sollicited her owne soone to commit incest with her who in detestation of her filthinesse raised a power against her and conquering her in one great battaile caused her to be put to death The tyrant Periander vsurped the gouernment ouer Corinth Sabell after he had slaine the principall of the city hee put to death his owne wife to the end to content and please his concubine nay and was so execrable as to lie with his owne mother he banished his naturall sonne and caused many children of his subiects to be gelded finally fearing some miserable and monstrous end and want of sepulchre in conscience of his misdeeds hee gaue in charge to two strong and hardie souldiers that they should guard a certaine appointed place and not faile to kill the first that came in their way and to bury his body being slaine now the first that met them was himselfe who offered himselfe vnto them without speaking any word and was soone dispatched and buried according to his commaundement but these two were encountred with foure other whome hee also had appointed to doe the same to them which they had done to him
In this ranke deseruably we may place the second Dionysius his sonne Sabell that for his cruelties and extortions was slaine by his owne subiects who though at the first made shew of a better and milder nature than his father was of yet after he was installed in his kingdome and growne strong his wicked nature shewed forth it selfe for first he rid out of the way his owne brethren then his nearest kindred and lastly all other that but any way displeased him vsing his sword not to the cutting downe of vice as it ought but to the cutting the throats of his innocent and guiltlesse subiects with which tyrannie the people being incensed began to mutiny from mutinies fell to open rebellion persecuting him so that he was compelled to flie and to take harbour in Greece where notwithstanding he ceased not his accustomed manners but continued still freshly committing robberies and doing all manner of iniuries and outrages in wronging men and forcing both women and maids to his filthie lust vntill hee was brought vnto so low and so base an eb of estate that of a king being become a begger and vagabond he was glad to teach children at Corinth to get his poore liuing and so died in misery Clearchus another tyrant after hee had put to death the most part of the Nobles and chiefe men of account in the citie Heraclea vsurped a tyrannous authoritie ouer the rest Sabel amongst many of whose monstrous enormities this was one that hee constrained the widdowes of those whome hee had slaine against their wils to marry those of his followers whom hee allotted them to in so much that many of them with griefe and anger slew themselues now there were two men of stouter courage than the rest who pittying the miserable condition of the whole citie vndertooke to deliuer the same out of his cruell handes comming therefore accompanied with fifty other of the same mind and resolution as though they would debate a priuat quarell before his presence assoon as conuenience serued they diuerted their swords from themselues into the tyrants bosome and hewed him in peeces in the very midst of his guard Agathocles king or rather Tyrant of Sicile Sabel from a potters sonne growing to be a man of warre tooke vpon him the gouernment of the countrie and vsurped the crowne contrarie to the consent of his people he was one giuen to all maner of filthie and vncleane pollutions in whome trecherie crueltie and generally all kind of vice raigned and therfore was worthely plagued by God first by a murder of his yongest sonne committed by his eldest sonnes sonne that aspired vnto the crown and thought that he might be an obstacle in his way for obtaining his purpose and lastly hauing sent his wife and children into Aegypt for safetie by his own miserable and languishing death which shortly after ensued Romulus the first king of Rome was as Florus Florus testifieth transported by a deuill out of this earth into some habitation of his own for the monstrous superstitions coniurings thefts rauishments and murders which during his pompe hee committed and moreouer hee saith that Plutarch Plutarch the most credible learned writer among Historiographers both Greek and Latine that euer writ auoucheth the same for true that hee was carried away one day by a spirit in a mightie tempest of thunder and lightning before the view of the whole multitude to their great astonishment insomuch that they fled at the sight thereof What shall wee say of Silla that monster in cruelty that most odious and execrable Tyrant that euer was by whom all ciuill order and humane pollicy was vtterly defaced and all vice and confusion in steed thereof set vp Did hee not procure the death of sixe thousand men at one clap Plutarch at the discomfiture of Marius and hauing promised to saue the liues of three thousand that appealed vnto his mercy did he not cause them to be assembled within a parke and there to haue their throats cut whilest hee made an oration to the Senate It was hee that filled the channels of the streets of Rome other cities in Italy with blood slaughters innumerable and that spared neither altar temple or other priuiledged place or house whatsoeuer from the pollution and destainement of innocent bloud husbands were slain in their wiues armes infants in their mothers bosomes and infinite multitudes of men murdered for their riches for if any were either rich or owners of faire houses or pleasant gardens they were sure to die besides if there were any priuate quarrell or grudge betwixt any citizen and some of his crue hee suffered his side to reuenge themselues after their owne lusts so that for priuate mislike and enmitie many hundreds lost their liues hee that saued an outlaw or proscribed person in his house of which there were too many of the best sort in his time or gaue him entertainement vnder his roofe whether hee were his brother sonne or parent whatsoeuer was himselfe for recompence of his courtesie and humanity proscribed and sold and condemned to death and hee that killed one of them that was proscribed had for reward two talēts the wages of his murder amounting in value to twelue hundred crownes whether it was a bondslaue that slew his master or a son that murdered his father comming to Prenest he began to proceed in a kind of iusticiall form amongst the citizens as it were by law and equitie to practise wrong and iniury but ere long either being wearie of such slow proceedings or not at leisure to prosecute the same any further he caused to meet together in one assembly two thousand of thē whom he committed al to the massacre without any maner of compassion as he was sitting one day in the midst of his pallace in Rome a souldior to whom he had granted the proscription of his dead brother as if he had been aliue whom he himselfe before the ciuill war had slain presented him in lieu of thāks for that great good turn the head of one Marcus Marius of the aduerse factiō before the whole city with his hāds al embrued in bloud which he also washed in the holy waterstack of Apolloes temple being neer vnto that place and all this being cōmended countenanced by Sill◠he decreed a general disanulment abrogation of all titles and rights that were passed before his time to the end to haue more libertie both to put to death whō he pleased to cōfiscat mēs goods also to vnpeople to repeople cities to sack pull down build to depose make kings at his pleasure the goods which he had thus seazed he shamed not to sell with his own handssitting in his tribunall seat giuing oftentimes a faire woman a whole country or the reuenues of a city for her beauty and to plaiers iesters iuglers minstrels and other wicked effranchised slaues great and vnnecessary rewards yea
persuaded king Charles the eight of Fraunce to vndertake war against Naples and after hee had brought him to it presently he forsooke him and entred a new league with the Venetians Venetian histor lib. 6. and the other princes of Italy to driue him home again This was he saith Cardinall Bembus that set benefices and promotions to sale that hee which would giue most might haue most and that poysoned Iohn Michell the Cardinall of Venice at Rome for his gold and treasure which hee abounded with whose insatiable couetousnesse prouoked him to the committall of all mischiefe to the end he might maintaine the forces of his son who went about to bring the whole lands and dominions of all Italy into his possession in adulteries hee was most filthy and abhominable in tyrany most cruell and in Magicke most cunning and therefore most execrable supping one night with Cardinall Adrian his very familiar friend in his gardē hauing foreappointed his destruction that night by poyson through the negligence and ouersight of his butler to whom hee had giuen the exploit in charge that was deceiued by mistaking the bottles hee dranke himselfe the medicine which he had prepared for his good friend the Cardinall and so hee died saith Bembus not without an euident marke of Gods heauy wrath in that he which had slaine so many Princes and rich men to enioy their treasures and went now about to murder his host which entertained him with friendship and good cheare into his house was caught in the same snare which he had laid and destroied by the same meanes himselfe which he had destinated for another being thus dead the whole city of Rome saith Guicciardine ran out with greedines ioy to behold his carcasse not being able to satisfie their eies with beholding the dead serpent whose venime of ambition trecherie cruelty adultry auarice had impoisoned the whole world Some say that as he purposed to poyson certaine Cardinals he poysoned his owne father that being in their company chanced to get a share of his dregs and that hee was so abhominable to abuse his owne sister Lucrece in the way of filthines When Gemen the brother of Baiazet the Emperor of the Turkes came and surrendred himselfe into his hands was admitted into his protection he being hired with two hundred duccats by Baiazet gaue poyson to his new client euen to him to whom hee had before sworne and vowed his friendship besides that he might mainteine his tyranny hee demanded and obtained aid of the Turke against the king of France which was a most vnchristian and antichristian part he caused the tongue two hands of Antony Manciuellus a very learned wise man to be cut off for an excellent oration which he made in reproofe of his wicked demeanours and dishonest life It is written moreouer by some that hee was so affectionated to the seruice of his good Lord and master the deuil that he neuer attempted any thing without his counsel and aduise who also presented himself vnto him at his death in the habite of a post according to the agreement which was betwixt them and although this wretched Antichrist straue against him for life saying that his terme was not yet finished yet he was enforced to diflodge and depart into his proper place where with horrible cries and hideous fearefull grones he died Thus we see how miserable such wretched and infamous miscreants and such pernicious cruell Tyrants haue ended their wicked liues their force power being execrable and odious In his book of the clemencie of a prince and therfore as saith Seneca not able to continue any long time for that gouernment cannot bee firme and stable where there is no shame nor feare to doe euill nor where equity iustice saith and piety with other vertues are contemned and troden vnder foot for when cruelty once beginnerh to predominate it is so vnsatiable that it neuer ceaseth but groweth euery day from worse to worse by striuing to maintaine and defend old faults by new vntill the fear and terror of the poore afflicted and oppressed people with a continuall source and enterchange of euils which surcharge them conuerteth it selfe from forced patience to willing fury breaketh forth to doe vengeance vpon the tyrants heads with all violence whence ariseth that saying of the Satyricall Poet to the same sence Where he saith Ad generum cereris sine cede sanguine pauci Descendunt reges sicca morte tyranni Few tyrants die the death that nature sends But most are brought by slaughter to their ends CHAP. XLIIII Of calumniation and false witnesse bearing WEe haue seene heretofore what punishments the Lord hath laid vpon those that either vex their neighbours in their persons as in the breakers of the fift sixt and seuenth commandements or dammage thē in their goods as in the eight now let vs looke vnto those that seeke to spoile them of their good names and rob them of their credite by slanderous reproches and false and forged calumniations and by that means goe against the ninth commandement which sayth Thou shalt not beare false witnesse against thy neighbour in which words is condemned generally all slanders all false reports all defamations and all euill speech els whatsoeuer wherby the good name and credit of a man is blemished stained or impouerished and this sin is not onely inhibited by the diuine law of the almighty but also by the lawes of nature and nations for there is no country and people so barbarous with whom these pernicious kind of creatures are not held in detestation of tame beasts sayth Diogenes a flatterer is worst and of wild beasts a backbiter or a slaunderer and not without great reason for as there is no disease so daungerous as that which is secret so there is no enemy so pernicious as hee which vnder the colour of friendship biteth and slandereth vs behind our backes but let vs see what iudgements the Lord hath shown vpon them to the end the odiousnesse of this vice may more clearely appeare And first to begin with Doeg the Edomir 1. Sam. 22.9 who falsly accused Achimelech the high priest vnto Saul for giuing succor vnto Dauid in his necessity flight for though he told nothing but that which was true yet of that truth some he maliciously peruerted some he kept back falshood cōsisteth not only in plain lying but also in concealing or misusing the truth for Achimelech indeed asked counsell of the Lord for Dauid ministred vnto him the shew bread the sword of Goliah but not with any intent of malice against king Saul for he supposed and Dauid also made him beleeue that he went about the kings businesse that he was in great fauor with the king which last clause the wicked accuser left out by that means not only prouoked the wrath of Saul against the high priest but also when al other refused became
recompence of his malice Nice li. 4. c. 26. which custome as it was laudable and necessary so was it put in execution at diuerse times as namely vnder the Emperor Commodus when a prophane wretch accused Apollonius a godly profest Christiā afterward a constant martyr of Christ Iesus before the iudges of certaine greeuous crimes which when he could by no colour or likelihood of truth conuince proue they adiudged him to that ignominious punishment to haue his legs broken because he had accused defamed a man without cause Eustathius bishop of Antioch a man famous for eloquence in speech vprightnesse of life Nicep li. 8. c. 46. whē as he impugned the heresie of the Arians was circumuented by them and deposed from his bishoprick by this meanes they suborned a naughtie strumpet to come in with a child in her armes and in an open synode of two hundred fiftie bishops to accuse him of Adultery to sweare that he had got that child of her body which though hee denied constantly no iust proofe could bee brought against him yet the impudent strumpets oth tooke such place that by the Emperours censure hee was banished from his bishopricke howbeit ere long his innocencie was knowne for the said strumpet being deseruedly touched with the finger of Gods iustice in extreame sicknesse confessed the whole practise how shee was suborned by certaine Bishops to slander this holy man and that yet shee was not altogether a lier for one Eustathius a handy-crafts man got the child as she had sworne and not Eustathius the bishop The like slander the same heretikes deuised against Athanasius in a synode conuocated by Constantine the Emperour at Tyrus Phil. Melanct. chro lib. 3. Nicep li. 9. c. 23. for they suborned a certaine leud woman to exclaime vpon the holy man in the open assembly for rauishing of her that last night against hir will which slander he shifted of by this deuise hee sent Timotheus the presbiter of Alexandria into the synode in his place who comming to the woman asked her before them all whether she durst say that hee had rauished her to whom she replied yea I swear and vow that thou hast done it for she supposed it to haue ben Athanasius whom shee neuer saw whereat the whole synode perceiued the cauill of the lying Arrians and quitted the innocencie of that good man Howbeit these malicious heretiks seeing this practise not to succeed inuented another worse than the former for they accused him to haue slaine one Arsenius whom they themselues kept secret and that hee carried one of his hands about him wherewith he wrought miracles by enchātment but Arsenius touched by the spirit of God stole away from thē came to Athanasius to the end he should receiue no dammage by his absence whom he brought into the iudges and shewed them both his hands confounded his accusers with shame of their malice insomuch as they ran away for feare and satisfied the iudges both of his integrity and their enuious calumniation the chiefe broker of all this mischiefe was Stephanus bishop of Antioch but he was degraded from his bishoprick and Leontius elected in his roome Histor tripart Hetherto we may adde the example of one William Feming who accused an honest man called Iohn Cooper of speaking traiterous words against Queene Mary and all because he would not fell him two goodly bullockes which he much desired for which cause the poore man being arraigned at Berry in Suffolke was condemned to death by reason of two false witnesses which the said Feming had suborned for that purpose whose names were White and Greenewood so this poore man was hanged drawne and quartered and his goods taken from his poore wife and nine children which are left destitute of all helpe but as for his false accusers one of them died most miserably for in haruest time being well and lusty of a sodaine his bowels fell out of his body and so hee perished the other two what ends they came vnto it is not reported but sure the Lord hath reserued a sufficient punishment for all such as they are Acts and mon. pag 2100. Many more be the examples of this sinne and iudgements vpon it as the pilleries at Westminster and daily experience beareth witnesse but these that wee haue alledged shall suffice for this purpose because this sin is cousen Germane vnto periurie of which you may read more at large in the former booke It should now follow by course of order if wee would not pretermit any thing of the law of God to speake of such as haue offended against the tenth commandement what punishment hath ensued the same but for so much as all such offences for the most part are encluded vnder the former of which we haue alreadie spoken and that there is no adultery nor fornication nor theft nor vniust-warre but it is annexed to and proceedeth from the affection and the resolution of an euill and disordinate concupiscense as the effect from the cause therefore it is not necessary to make any particular recitall of them more than may well be collected out of the former examples added hereunto that in simple concupiscense and affection of doing euill which commeth not to act though it be in the sight of God condemned to euerlasting torments yet it doth not so much incurre and prouoke his indignation that a man should for that onely cause be brought to apparant destruction and be made an example to others to whome the sinne is altogither darke and vnknowne therefore wee will proceed in our purpose without intermedling in speciall with this last commandement CHAP. XLV That kings and princes ought to looke to the execution of Iustice for the punishment of naughtie and corrupt manners NO man ought to be ignorant of this that it is the duty of a prince not onely to hinder the course of sinne from bursting into action but also to punish the doers of the same making both ciuill iustice to be administred vprightly and the law of God to be regarded and obserued inuiolably for to this end are they ordained of God that by their means euery one might liue a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honestie to the which end the maintenance and administration of iustice beeing most necessary they ought not so to discharge themselues of it as to translate it vpon their officers and iudges but also to looke to the execution thereof themselues as it is most needfull for if law which is the foundation of iustice be as Plato saith a speechlesse and dumbe magistrate who shall giue voice and vigour vnto it if not hee that is in supreame and soueraigne authority for which cause the king is commaunded in Deuteronomie Deu. 17.18 19 To haue before him alwaies the booke of the law to the end to doe iustice and iudgement to euery one in the feare of God And before the creation of kings
that it is but a tast and a scantling of those torments and punishments which are prepared and made readie for them in the world to come And therefore it often commeth to passe that they passe out of this life most quietly without the disturbance of any crosse or punishment but it is that they might be more strangely tormented in another world Some not considering this point nor stretching the view of their vnderstanding beyond the aspect of their carnal eies haue fallen into this foolish opinion to thinke that there is neither iustice nor iudgement in heauen nor respect of equitie with the highest when they see the wicked to florish in prosperity and the good and innocent to be ouerwhelmed with aduersity yea and many holy men also haue fallen into this temptation as Iob and Dauid did Iob. 12. 21. Psal 73. who when they considered the condition of the wicked and vniust how they liued in this world at their hearts ease compassed about with pleasures and delights and waxing old in the same were carried to their sepulchres in peace they were somewhat troubled and perplexed within themselues vntill being instructed and resolued by the word of God they marked their finaâ—â—end and issue and the euerlasting perdition which was prâ—â—â—â— for them and by no meanes could be escaped And thus it commeth to passe saith S. Augustine that many sinnes are punished in this world Epist. 5â— that the prouidence of God might be more apparant and many yea most reserued to be punished in the world to come that wee might know that there is yet iudgement behind CHAP. LI. How the afflictions of the godly and punishments of the wicked differ WHich seeing it is so it is necessary that the wicked and peruerse ones should feele the rigor of Gods wrath for the presumption and rebellion wherewith they daily prouoke him against them and although with those that feare God and striue to keepe themselues from euill and take paines to liue peaceably and quietly it often times goeth worse here below than with others being laid open to millions of iniuries reproches and cruelties and are as it were sheepe appointed to the slaughter whereof some are massacred some hanged some hedded some drowned some burned or put to some other cruell death yet notwithstanding their estate and condition is farre happier than that of the wicked for so much as all their sufferings and aduersities are blessed and sanctified vnto them of God who turneth them to their aduantage according to the saying of S. Luke Rom. 8.28 That all things worke for the good to them that feare God for whatsoeuer tribulation befalleth them they cannot be separated from the loue of God which hee beareth vnto them in his well beloued sonne Christ Iesus be it then that God visiteth them for their faults for there is none that is cleare of sinne it is a fatherly chastisement to bring them to amendment be it that he exerciseth them by many afflictions as he did Iob it is to prooue their faith and patience to the end they may be better purified like gold in the furnace and serue for examples to others If it be for the truth of the Gospell that they suffer then they are blessed because they are conformed to the image of the sonne of God that they might also be partakers of his glory for they that suffer with him are assured to raigne with him hence it is that in the midst of their torments and oppressions in the midst of fires and fagots flaming about them beeing comforted with the consolations of Gods spirit through a sure hope of their happie repose and incorruptible crowne which is prepared for them in the heauens they reioice and are so chearefull contrariwise the wicked seeing themselues ensnared in the euils which their owne sinnes brought vpon them gnash their teeth fret themselues murmure against God and hlaspheme him like wretches to their endlesse perdition There is therfore great difference betwixt the punishments of ech of these for the one tendeth to honour and life the other to shame and confusion and euen as it is not the greatnes of torments that maketh the martyr but the goodnes of the cause so the infliction of punishment vniustly neither maketh the partie afflicted guilty nor any whit diminisheth his reputation wheras the wicked that are iustly tormented for their sinnes are so marked with infamie and dishonour that the staine thereof can neuer be wiped out Let euery one therefore learne to keepe himselfe from euill and to containe himselfe in a kind of modestie and integritie of life seeing that by the plagues and scourges wherewith the world is ordinarily afflicted Gods fierce wrath is clearely reuealed from heauen vpon all impiety and iniustice of men to consume all those that rebell against him Thinke vpon this you inhabitants of the earth small and great of what qualitie or condition soeuer you be If you be mighty puissant and fearfull know that the Lord is greater thaÌ„ you for he is almighty all-terrible al-feareful in what place soeuer you are he is alwaies aboue you ready to hurle you downe and ouerturne you to breake quash crush you in pieces as pots of earth he is armed with thunder fire and a bloody sword to destroy consume and cut you in peeces heauen threatneth from aboue and the earth which you trample on from below shaking vnder your feet and being ready to spue you out from her face or swallow you vp in her bowels in briefe all the elements creatures of God looke a skew at you in disdaine and set themselues against you in hatred if you feare not your Creatour your Lord and Master Esai 40. of whome you haue receiued your scepters and crownes and who is able when he please to bring princes to nothing and make the rulers of the earth a thing of nought Forsake therefore if you tender the good honour and repose of your selues and yours the euill and corrupt fashions of the world and submit your selues in obedience vnder the scepter of Gods law and gospell fearing the iust retribution of vengeance vpon all them that doe the contrarie Heb. 10.31 for it is a horrible thing to fall into the hands of the Lord. And you which honour and reuerence God alreadie be now more quickened and stirred vp to his loue and obedience and to a more diligent practising of his will and following his commaundements to the end to glorifie him by your liues looking for the happie end of your hope reserued in the heauens for you by Christ Iesus our Lord to whome be glorie euerlastingly Amen A Table of all the principall points contained in the first and second Booke AS touching the corruption and peruersitie of this World how great it is Pag. 1 What the cause is of the great overflow of Vice in this age Pag. 3 That great men which will not abide to be admonished of their faults can
battaile yet was hee encountred with another desastrous misfortune for as hee marched forward with his forces to fight with Sigismunds brother he was by him ouercome and slain and for a further disgrace his dismembred head fastened on the top of a pike carried about to the enterview of all men Hee left behind him three yoong sonnes whom his owne brethren and their vncles Clotaire and Childebert notwithstanding their yong tender yeares tooke from their grandmother Clotildes custodie that brought them vp as if they would enstall them into some part of their fathers kingdome but most wickedly and cruelly to the end to possesse their goods lands signiories bereft them al of their liues saue one that saued himselfe in a monestarie In this strange monstrous act Clotaire shewed himselfe more then barbarous when hee would not take pitty vpon the youngest of the two being but seuen yeare old who hearing his brother of the age of tenne yeares crying pittifully at his slaughter threw himselfe at his vncle Childeberts feet with teares desiring him to saue his life wherewith Childebert being greatly affected entreated his brother with weeping eies to haue pitty vpon him and spare the life of this poore infant but al his warnings and entreaties could not hinder the sauadge beast from performing this cruell murder vpon this poor child as he had done vpon the other The Emperour Phocas attained by this bloody means the emperiall dignity Nicephor lib. 18. cap. 58. euen by the slaughter of his Lord maister Mauricius whom as he fled in disguised attire for feare of a treason pretended against him hee being beforetime the leiutenant general of his army pursued so maliciously hotely that he ouertook him in his flight for his further griefe first put all his childrē seuerally to death before his face that euery one of thē might be a seuerall death vpon him before he died and then slew him also This murderer was hee that first exalted to so high a point the popish horn whē at the request of Boniface he ordained that the bishop of Rome shold haue preheminence authority oueral other bishops which he did to the end that the stain blame of his most execrable murder might be either quite blotted out or at least wincked at Vnder his regencie the forces of the Empire grew wonderously into decay France Spaine Almaigne and Lumbardy reuolted from the Empire and at last himselfe being pursued by his sonne in law Priscus with the Senators vvas taken and hauing his handes and feet cut off was togither with the whole race of his ofspring put to a most cruel death because of his cruell and tyrannous life Among all the strange examples of Gods iudgements that euer were declared in this world that one that befell a king of Poleland called Popiell for his murders is for the strangenesse thereof most worthy to bee had in memory hee raigned in the year of our Lord 1346 this man among other of his particular kinds of cursings and swearing whereof he was no niggard vsed ordinarily this oth If it bee not true would rats might deuour me Munst Cosmog Mandat 3. Cursing lib. 1. cap. 32. prophecying thereby his owne destruction for hee was deuoured euen by the same means which hee so often wished for as the sequele of his historie will declare The father of this Popiell feeling himselfe neare death resigned the gouernment of his kingdome to two of his brethren men exceedingly reuerenced of all men for the valor and vertue which appeared in them He being deceased and Popiell being growne vp to ripe and lawfull yeares when hee saw himselfe in full libertie without all bridle of gouernment to doe what he listed he began to giue the full swindge to his lawlesse and vnruly desires in such sort that within few daies he became so shamelesse that there was no kind of vice which appeared not in his behauior euen to the working of the death of his owne vncles for all their faithfull dealing towards him which hee by poyson brought to passe Which being done he caused himself forthwith to be crowned with garlands of flowers and to bee perfumed with pretious ointments and to the end the better to solemnize his entrie to the crowne commanded a sumptuous and pompous banket to be prepared wherevnto all the princes and lords of his kingdome were inuited Now as they were about to giue the onset vpon the delicate cheare behold an army of rats sallying out of the dead and putrified bodies of his vncles set vpon him his wife and children amid their dainties to gnaw them with their sharp teeth insomuch that his guard with all their weapons strength were not able to chase them away but being weary with resisting their daily mightie assaults gaue ouer the battaile wherfore counsell was giuen to make great coale fires round about them that the rats by that meanes might bee kept off not knowing that no pollicy or power of man was able to withstand the vnchangeable decree of God for for all their huge forces they ceased not to run through the midst of them and to assault with their teeth this cruell murderer Then they gaue him counsaile to put himselfe his wife children into a boat and thrust it into the middest of a lake thinking that by reason of the waters the rats would not approch vnto thē But alasse in vain for they swum through the waters amaine gnawing the boat made such chinckes into the sides thereof that the water began to run in which being perceiued of the boatmen amazed them sore and made them make post hast vnto the shore where he was no sooner arriued but a fresh muster of rats vniting their forces with the former encountred him so sore that they did him more scath then all the rest Wherevpon all his guard and others that were there present for his defence perceiuing it to be a iudgement of Gods vengeance vpon him abandoned and forsooke him at once who seeing himselfe destitute of succour and forsaken on all sides flew into a high tower in Chousuitze whether also they pursued him and climing euen vp to the highest roome where he was first eat vp his wife and children shee being guilty of his vncles death and lastly gnew and deuoured him to the very bones After the same sort was an Archbishop of Mentz called Hatto Munsteer Cosmographie punished in the year 940 vnder the raigne of the Emperour Otho the great for the extreame cruelty which he vsed towards certaine poore beggers whom in time of famine he assembled together into a great barne not to releeue their wants as he might ought but to rid their liues as he ought not but did for hee set on fire the barne wherein they were and consumed them all aliue comparing them to rats mise that deuoured good corne but serued to no other good vse Mandat 8. Auarice and vnmercifulnesse But God
that had regard and respect vnto those poor wretches took their cause into his hand to quit this prowd prelate with iust reuenge for his outrage committed against thē sending towards him an army of rats mise to lay siege against him with the engines of their teeth on all sides which when this cursed wretch perceiued he remoued into a tower that standeth in the midst of Rhine not far from Bing whether he presumed this host of rats could not pursue him but he was deceiued for they swum ouer Rhine thick threefold got into his tower with such strange fury that in very short space they had consumed him to nothing In memorial wherof this tower was euer after called the tower of rats And this was the tragedy of that bloody archbutcher that compared poor Christian soules to brutish base creatures and therfore became himselfe a prey vnto them as Popiel king of Poleland did before him In whose strange exāples the beams of Gods iustice shine forth after an extraordinary wonderfull maner to the terror feare of all men when by the means of small creatures he made roome for his vengeāce to make entrance vpon these execrable creature murderers notwithstanding al mans deuises impediments of nature for the natiue operation of the elements was restrained frō hindering the passage of them armed inspired with an inuincible supernatural courage to feare neither fire water nor weapon till they had finished his command that sent them And thus in old time did frogs flies grashoppers and lice make warre with Pharoa at the command of him that hath all the world at his beck After this Archbishop in the same ranke of murderers we find registred many Popes of all whome the notorious and markable are these two Innocent the fourth and Boniface the eight who deserued rather to be called Nocents Malefaces than Innocents Boniface for their wicked peruerse liues for as touching the first of them from the time that hee was first installed in the Papacy he alwaies bent his horns against the Emperor Fredericke fought with him with an army not of men but of excommunications cursings as their manner is seeing that all his thundering buls and canons could not preuaile so far as hee desired hee presently sought to bring to passe that by treason which by force he could not for hee so enchanted certain of his houshold seruants with foule bribes and faire words Hieron Marius that when by reason of his short draught the poison which he ministred could not hurt him hee got thē to strangle him to death Moreouer he was chiefe sower of that war betwixt Henry Lantgraue of Thuring whom he created king of the Romans Conrade Fredericks son wherein hee reaped a crop of discomfitures ouerthrows after which he was found slain in his bed his body being full of black marks as if he had ben beaten to death with cudgels Concerning Boniface Baleus after he had by subtle crafty means made his predecessor dismisse himselfe of his Papacy and enthronized himselfe therein hee put him to death in prison and afterward made war vpon the Gibilines and committed much crueltie wherefore also he died mad as we heard before But touching the murderers of Popes and their punishments for the same wee shall see more in the 43 chapter following whether the examples of them are referred that exceeding in all kind of wickednesse cannot bee rightly placed in the treatise of any particular commandement CHAP. XIX Other memorable examples of the same subiect IF wee descend from antiquities to histories of later fresher memory we shall find many things worthy report and credit as that which happened in the year 1405 betwixt two gentlemen of Henault Eguerron de monstr vol. 1. the one of which accused the other for killing a near kinsman of his which the other vtterly and stedfastly denied wheron duke William county of Henault offered thē the cōbat in the city of Quesney to decide the cōtrouersie by when as by law it could not be ended wherevnto they being come hauing broken their speares in two incountred valiantly with their swords at length hee that was charged with indeed guilty of the murder was ouercome of the other and made to confesse with his mouth in opē audience the truth of the fact Wherefore the County adiudged him in the same place to bee beheaded which was speedily executed and the conqueror honourably conducted to his lodging Now albeit this maner of deciding controuersies be not approued of God yet we must not thinke it happened at aladuentures but rather that the issue therof came of the Lord of hosts that by this means gaue place to the execution of his most high soueraign iustice by manifesting the murderer bringing him to that punishmēt which he deserued Eguerron de monstr vol. 1. About this very time there was a most cruel outragious riot practised performed vpō Lewis duke of Orleance brother to Charles the sixt by the complot deuise of Iohn duke of Burgundy who as he was naturally haughty ambitious went about to vsurpe the gouernmēt of the realm of France for that the king by reason of weaknesse of his braine was not able to manage the affairs therof so that great trouble vnciuil wars were growne vp by that occasion in euery corner of the realme As therfore he affected and gaped after the rule so he thought no means dishonest to attain vnto it and therfore his first enterprise was to take out of the way the kings brother who stood betwixt him and home Hauing therfore prouided fit champions for his purpose hee found oportunity one night to cause him to come out of his lodging late by counterfait tokens from the king as if hee had sent for him about some matters of importance and being in the way to S. Pauls hostle where the kings lodging was in Paris the poore prince suspecting nothing was sodainly set vpō with eighteen roisters at once with such fury violence that in very short space they left him dead vpō the pauement by the gate Barbet his braines lying scattered about the street After this detestable and odious act committed and detected the cruell Burgundian was so farre from shaming that he vaunted and boasted at it as if he had atchieued the most valorous and honourable exploit in the world so farre did his impudencie outstretch the bond of reason Neuerthelesse to cast some counterfait colour vpon this rough practise he vsed the conscience and fidelitie of three famous diuines of Paris who openly in publicke assemblies approoued of this murder saying That he had greatly offended if hee had left it vndone About this deuise hee emploied especially M. Iohn Petit a Sorbonist doctor whose rashnes and brasen-facednes was so great as in the counsell house of the king stoutly to auerre that that which was done in the death of
Iulia adulterers were without difference adiudged to death insomuch that Iulius Antonius a man of great parentage and reputation among the Romanes Lib. 4. Annal. whose sonne was nephew to Augustus sister as Cornelius Tacitus reporteth was for this crime executed to death Aurelianus the Emperour did so hate and detest this vice that to the end to scare and terrifie his souldiers from the like offence he punished a soldier which had committed adultery with his hostesse in most seuere manner euen by causing him to be tied by both his feet to two trees bent downe to the earth with force which being let goe returning to their course rent him cruelly in pieces the one halfe of his body hanging on the one tree and the other on the other Yea and at this day amongst the very Turkes and Tartarians this sinne is sharply punished So that we ought not wonder that the Lord should ordaine death for the adulterer If a man saith the law lie with another mans wife â—euit 20.10 if I say he commit adultery with his neighbours wife the adulterer and the adulteresse shall die the death Deut. 22.22 And in another place If a man be found lying with a woman married to a man they shall die both twaine to wit the man that lay with the wife and the wife that thou maist put away euill from Israel Yea and before Moses time also it was a custome to burne the adulterers with fire Genes 38. as it appeareth by the sentence of Iuda one of the twelue Patriarchs vpon Thamar his daughter in law because he supposed her to haue plaied the whore Beside all this to the end this sinne might not be shuffled vp and kept close there was a meanes giuen whereby if a man did but suspect his wife for this sin though shee could by no witnes or proofe be conuinced her wickednesse notwithstanding most strangely and extraordinarily might be discouered Numb 5. And it was this The woman publikely at her husbands sute called in question before the priest who was to giue iudgement of her after diuers ceremonies and circumstances perfourmed and bitter curses pronounced by him her belly would burst and her thigh would rot if shee were guilty and she should be a curse amongst the people for her sinne but if she was free no euill would come vnto her Thus it pleased God to make knowne that the filthinesse of those that are polluted with this sinne should not lie hid This may more clearely appeare by the example of the Leuites wife of whome it is spoken in the 19 20 and 21 chapters of Iudges who hauing forsaken her husband to play the whore certaine moneths after hee had againe receiued her to be his wife she was giuen ouer against her will to the villanous and monstrous lusts of the most wicked and peruerse Gibeonites Rape li. 2. c. 19. that so abused her for the space of a whole night togither that in the morning shee was found dead vpon the threshold which thing turned to a great destruction and ouerthrow in Israel for the Leuit when hee arose and found his wife newly dead at the dore of his lodging hee cut and dismembred her body into twelue pieces and sent them into all the countries of Israel to euery tribe one to giue them to vnderstand how vile and monstrous an iniurie was done vnto him whereupon the whole nation assembling and consulting togither when they saw how the Beniamites in whose tribe this monstrous villanie was committed make no reckening of seeing punishment executed vpon those execrable wretches they tooke armes against them and made warre vpon them wherein though at the first conflict they lost to the number of forty thousand men yet afterward they discomfited and ouerthrew the Beniamites and slew of them 25000 rasing and burning downe the city Gabea where the sinne was committed with all the rest of the cities of that tribe in such sort that there remained aliue but sixe hundred persons that saued their liues by flying into the desart and there hid themselues foure moneths vntill such time as the Israelites taking pitty of them least they should vtterly be brought to nought gaue them to wife to the end to repeople them againe foure hundred virgins of the inhabitants of Iabes Gilead reserued out of that slaughter of those people wherein man woman and child were put to the sword for not comming forth to take part with their brethren in that late warre And forasmuch as yet there remained two hundred of them vnprouided for the Ancient of Israel gaue them libertie to take by force two hundred of the daughters of their people which could not be but great iniury and vexation vnto their parents to be thus robbed of their daughters and to see them married at all aduentures without their consent or liking These were the mischiefes which issued and sprang from that vile and abominable adultery of the wicked Gabaonites with the Leuits wife One sin punished with another whose first voluntary sinne was in like manner also most iustly punished by this second rape and this is no new practise of our most iust God to punish one sinne by another and sinners in the same kind wherein they haue offended When king Dauid after hee had ouercome the most part of his enemies 2. Sam. 11. and made them tributaries vnto him and enioyed some rest in his kingdome whilst his men of war pursuing their victory destroied the Ammonites and were in besieging Rabba their chiefe citie hee was so inflamed with the beauty of Bathshabe Vriahs wife that hee caused her to be conueied to him to lie with her to which sinne hee combined another more grieuous to wit when he saw her with child by him to the end to couer his adultery he caused her husband to be slaine at the siege by putting him in the vantgard of the battaile at the assault and then thinking himselfe cocksure married Bathshabe But all this while as it was but vaine allurements no solid ioy that fed his mind and his sleep was but of sinne not of safety wherein he slumbered so the Lord awakened him right soone by afflictions and crosses to make him feele the burden of the sinne which hee had committed 2. Sam. 12. first therefore the child the fruit of this adultery was stricken with sicknesse and died next his daughter Thamar Absoloms sister was rauished by Ammon one of his owne sonnes 2. Sam. 13. 2. Sam. 15. thirdly Ammon for his incest was slaine by Absolom and fourthly Absolom ambitiously aspiring after the kingdome and conspiring against him raised warre vpon him and defiled his concubines and came to a wofull destruction All which things being grieuous crosses to king Dauid were inflicted by the iust hand of God to chastise and correct him for his good not to destroy him in his wickednesse neither did it want the effect in him for he was so farre from swelling
and hardening himselfe in his sinne that contrariwise he cast downe and humbled himselfe and craued pardon and forgiuenesse at the hand of God with all his heart and true repentance not like to such as grow obstinate in their sinnes and wickednesse and make themselues beleeue all things are lawfull for them although they be neuer so vile and dishonest This therefore that wee haue spoken concerning Dauid is not to place him among the number of leud and wicked liuers but to shew by his chastisements beeing a man after Gods owne heart how odious and displeasant this sinne of Adultery is to the Lord and what punishment all others are to expect that wallow therein since hee spared not him whome he so much loued and fauoured CHAP. XXVI Other examples like vnto the former THe history of the rauishment of Helene registred by so many worthy and excellent authours and the great euils that pursued the same Herodot lib. 2. is not to be counted altogither an idle fable Thucyd. or an inuention of pleasure seeing that it is sure that vpon that occasion great and huge warre arose betweene the Greeians and the Troianes during the which the whole countrey was hauocked many cities and townes destroied much blood shed and thousands of men discomfited amongst whome the rauisher and adulterer himselfe to wit Paris the chiefe moouer of all those miserable tragedies escaped not the edge of the sword no nor that famous citie Troy which entertained and maintained the adulterers within her wals went vnpunished but at last was taken and destroied by fire and sword In which sacking old and gray headed king Priam with all the remnant of his halfe slaine sonnes were togither murdered his wife and daughters were taken prisoners and exposed to the mercy of their enemies his whole kingdome was entirely spoiled and his house quite defaced and well nigh all the Troiane nobilitie extinguished and as touching the whore Helene her selfe whose disloialtie gaue consent to the wicked enterprise of forsaking her husbands house and following a stranger shee was not exempt from punishment for as some writers affirme shee was slaine at the sacke but according to others Anton. Vols vpon Ouids epist of Hermione to Orestes she was at that time spared and entertained againe by Menelaus her husband but after his death shee was banished in her old age and constrained for her last refuge beeing both destitute of reliefe and succour and forsaken of kinsfolkes and friends to flie to Rhodes where at length contrary to her hope shee was put to a shamefull death euen hanging on a tree which shee long time before deserued Tit. Liu. The iniury and dishonour done to Lucrece the wife of Collatinus by Sextus Tarquinius sonne to Superbus the last king of Rome Rape l. 2. c. 19. was cause of much trouble and disquietnesse in the city and elsewhere for first shee not able to endure the great iniury and indignity which was done vnto her pushed forward with anger and despite slue her selfe in the presence of her husband and kinsfolke notwithstanding all their desires and willingnesse to cleare her from all blame with whose death the Romans were so stirred prouoked against Sextus the sonne and Tarquinius the father that they rebelled forthwith and when hee should enter the city shut the gates against him neither would receiue or acknowledge him euer after for their king Whereupon ensued warre abroad and alteration of the state at home for after that time Rome endured no more king to beare rule ouer them but in their roome created two Consuls to be their gouernours which kind of gouernment continued to Iulius Caesars time Thus was Tarquinius the father shamefully deposed from his crowne for the adultery or rather rape of his sonne and Tarquinius the sonne slaine by the Sabians for the robberies and murders which by his fathers aduise he committed amongst them and hee himselfe not long after in the warre which by the Tuscane succours hee renued against Rome to recouer his lost estate Plutarch in the life publick was discomfited with them and slaine in the midst of the rout In the Emperour Valentinianus time the first of that name many women of great account and parentage were for committing adulterie put to death as testifieth Ammianus Marcellinus When Europe after the horrible wasting and great ruines which it suffered by the furious inuasion of Attilia Lib. 28. began to take a litle breath and find some ease behold a new trouble more hurtfull and pernicious than the former came vpon it by meanes of the filthy leachery and lust of the Emperour Valentinianus the third of that name who by reason of his euill bringing vp Procop. and gouernment vnder his mother Placidia being too much subiect to his owne voluptuousnesse and tied to his owne desires dishonoured the wife of Petronius Maximus a Senatour of Rome by forcing her to his pleasure an act indeed that cost him his life and many more beside and that drew after it the finall destruction of the Romane Empire and the horrible besacking and desolation of the city of Rome For the Emperour being thus taken and set on fire with the loue of this woman through the excellent beauty wherewith shee was endued endeauoured first to entice her to his lust by faire allurements and seeing that the bulwarke of her vertuous chastity would not by this meanes be shaken but that all his pursuit was still in vaine hee tried a new course and attempted to get her by deceit and pollicy which to bring about one day setting himselfe to play with her husband Maximus he woon of him his ring which he no sooner had but secretly he sent it to his wife in her husbands name with this commaundement That by that token shee should come presently to the court to do her duty to the Empresse Eudoxia shee seeing her husbands ring doubted nothing but came forthwith as shee was commanded where whilst she was entertained by certaine suborned women whome the Emperour had set on he himselfe commeth in place and discloseth vnto her his whole loue which he said he could no longer represse but must needs satisfie if not by faire meanes at least by force and compulsion and so he constrained her to his lust Her husband aduertised hereof Rape l. 2. c. 19. intended to reuenge this iniury vpon the Emperor with his owne hand but seeing he could not execute his purpose whilst Actius the captain generall of Valentinianus army liued a man greatly reuerenced and feared for his mighty and famous exploits atchieued in the warres against the Burgundians Gothes and Attila he found meanes by suggesting a false accusation of treason against him which made him to be hated and suspected of the Emperour to worke his death After that Actius was thus traiterously and vnworthily slaine the griefe of infinite numbers of people for him in regard of his great vertues and good seruice which he had